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.Its Influence upan Future Siuilization. 



— s^-^'r^Tf-^^ 



WILLIAM E. F. KRAUSE, 

AUTHOB OF " AMEEICAN INTERESTS IN BOENEO," " ThE UNITED STATES INTERESTS ABROAD 

AND A Number op Poems in the English and German Lansuages. 







San Francisco : 



qr PRINTED BY JOSEPH WINTEEBUEN & COMPANY. 

■^ 417 Clay Street, between Battery and Sansome. 






1873 



s 



X 



THE 






GERMAN-FKENCH WAR OF 1870 



ITS CONSEQUENCES 



FUTURE CIVILIZATION. 



BY WM. E. F. KRAUSE, 

AUTHOR OF "AMERICAN INTERESTS IN BORNEO," THE UNITED STATES INTERESTS 

ABROAD," AND A NUMBER OF POEMS IN THE ENGLISH 

AND GERMAN LANGUAGES. 




SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. 
JOS. WINTEEBURN & COMPANY, PRINTEES AND ELECTEOTYPERS, 

No. 417 Clay Street, between Sansome and Battery. 

1872. 



J^ 



OOMS OF THE 



ODD FELLOWS' LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 



San Francisco, February 28th, 1872. 
Sir: 

I am requested by the Government of the Association to acknowledge 
your donation of your works on " Borneo," " The Influence of the 
United States Abroad," "America, the Hope of Mankind," "Four 
Poems," "The Sanctity of IVIarriage," "22 Poems in the German Lan- 
guage," and the " History of the Franco-German War of 1870," all of 
which have been bound and placed on our shelves, and to return their 
thanks for the same. 

HENRY C. SQUIRE, 

Secretary. 
To W. E. F. KRAUSE, Esq. 

San Francisco, 

California. 



The anniversary of Mr. Krause's 20 years' residence in California. 
Arrival of the Steamship Golden Gate, Capt. Patterson, from Panama. 



THE LIBRARY 
OF C ONG RESS 

WASHINGTON 



Entered according to act of Congress in the year 1872, 

BY WM. E. F. KRAUSE, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington. 



INDEX. 



PART I. Introductory : The Advance of Republicanism .... 1-11 
The War. 

a. The Diplomacy of France and Prussia 11-21 

b. The Crown of Spain as proffered to the Prince 

of HohenzoUern Sigmaringen 21-28 

c. The acceptance of said Crown by a Prince of 

HohenzoUern considered by the government 

of Napoleon as a casus belli 28-34 

PART II. Napoleon's calculations of success in a war with 
Prussia, and the Declaration of War. 

a. Napoleon's Calculations 34-37 

b. The non-interference by all the European 

nations 37-46 

c. The Official Declaration of War by France to 

Prussia 46-47 

d. Interesting Sj^eeches and Diplomatic Corres- 

pondence between France and Prussia on 
the Subject of the Balance of Power in 
Europe 47-69 

PART III. The Provisional Battle Ground 69-72 

PART IV. The Prussian and French Army Organizations .... 72-78 

PART V. The War in Detail: 

a. The Staff of Generals of the French and Ger- 

man Armies — The Executive Command over 
the entire German Army entrusted by the 
King of Prussia to General Moltke 78-79 

b. The Commencement of Hostilities 79-80 

c. The Battles 80-85. Continued from 100-112 

PART VI. The French Republic 85-94 

PART VII. Why Peace was not concluded at Sedan 94-100 

PART VIII. The Capitulation of Strasburg and Metz— Naval 

Engagements 100-103 



IV 



PAGES . 

PAKT IX. The Siege of Paris and the Battles against the 

Army of the Loire 103-112 

PART X. The Consequences of the "War upon Future Civ- 
ilization 112-121 

PART XI. Peace— The New Boundary of Germany .121-124 

a. The Preliminaries of Peace 124-129 

PART XII. Germany at Home 129-134 

PART XIII. Historical Future — The Regeneration of the 

Netherlands 134-139 

PART XIV. The Cosmopolitan Power of the United States 
of America, Great Britain, and United Ger- 
many 139-142 

Sah FRANasco, Cal., February 22d, 1872. 



ERRATA. 

Page 2, line 29th, read 1,000,000,000, instead of 1,000,000. 
Page 40, line 15th, read Tartary, instead of Turkey. 
Page 94, line 26th, read the, instead of they. 
Page 95, line 34th, read herself, instead of itself. 
Page 130, line 1st, read ivelded, instead of smelted. 
Page 130, line 33d, read civilized, instead of barbarous. 
Page 135, line 27th, read her, instead of its. 
Page 135, line 30th, read their, instead of her. 
Page 136, line 13th, read best, instead of but. 
Page 141, line 15th, read upo7i, instead of to. 



THE A33VAISrCE OF REFUBLIOAlSnSM. 



It being an avowed characteristic of the high order of civilization 
attained to at this period of the world's history, for man and nations 
to sympathize with and aid in ameliorating the misfortunes of one 
another, it is quite natural that, v,^e find the peoj)le of the United 
States not only averse to and regretting all wars, from principle, 
themselves politically acting npon its high commands, but observe 
them aggrieved at the war which in turn has devastated France, as 
affecting one of the most civilized nations by retarding its general 
progress of prosperity. 

Truly loyal in their wishes for the maintenance of the Eepublic in 
France, and eager in discerning symptoms of a like improvement upon 
government in other civilized nations, the American people, while 
pondering over the extraordinary commotion of this war, experience 
a relief in the contemplation that with the tranquil demise of the ven- 
erable Emperor of Germany, the great intellectual union of the Ger- 
man people may signify the unveiling of the bright Goddess of Lib- 
erty in Germany; and, resting at her heart, feel its throbbings a 
mother's love for every child alike. 

Then, with Great Britain and her colonies simultaneously to follow, 
there is indeed a fair prospect, at this age, for all mankind to become 
free! And how unlike the dark periods of history when the Eomans 
failed in the permanency of the Republic through want of universal 
education, precluding a high state of morality, and were not guided 
to happiness by experience in the inestimable advantages of an enlight- 
ening Christianity. 

With us the republican versus the monarchical government has 
stood a centennial test — enough positive proof of not only its ra- 
tional sujjeriority over all other forms of government, but of its admi- 
rable efficiency, de facto, and its indivisibility and feasibility in enlight- 
ened ages. It now excels as the most glorious achievement of 
progress, because under it can be, and with us has been, is daily, and 
shall forever be attained, the true object of all civilization : the individ- 



ual happiness of man to an universal extent, duly commensurate with a 
steady advance in the general progress of civilization, so as to justify, 
as in accord with it, the prediction of its ultimate adoption by all 
nations, and to be by them regarded as manifest destiny, so soon as 
sufHcicntly enlightened and consequently unanimously determined of 
proclaiming, api:)reciating and revering it. 

Its legitimacy is found sacred, inasmuch as all truth and knowl- 
edge is derived from an incessant and correct interpretation and judi- 
cious application of nature, which wisdom, by labor attained, as ren- 
dering man good, virtuous and prosperous, enables him to properly 
appreciate life, directing reason to guide him to actions which, when 
sagaciously applied to the present, create his happiness, and, united 
with others, expand civilization, in chronological order of the day, 
through all ages -of time. So the earnest reflectant not merely per- 
ceives man as living in great numbers, scattered all over the earth, and 
originally born in mental and physical equality, but observes him as 
Avith impartiality tenderly cradled amidst the grand loveliness of 
nature, which, heralding the voice of Grod, distinguishes him as His 
image by the exuberance of his reasoning powers, and vouchsafes him 
happiness everywhere, while it demands of him the sacred duty of 
fraternity. This duty, be it understood, the American people, as a nation, 
really and almost only religiousl}^ obey, but which ought in this age to 
serve every civilized being as the syntax of the great study of the use 
of life, as acknowledged and demonstrated by civilization, which study 
is made altogether supreme in importance by the force of reflection 
upon the suret}^ as well as the mysterious uncertainty of the time, of 
death. 

The duty of fraternity is realized from the fact of the existence at 
our age of about 1,000,000 people. Furthermore, God creating man 
and not nations, land and not countries, nature not only points to 
man's independence through his individuality, as an inalienable right 
wherever he lives, but to freedom of his actions and the liberty of 
his will. As man at all arrives at civilization through external influ- 
ences, elevating his mind and cultivating his heart, so the circle of his 
personal friends shall widen in proportion of his own advance to 
that of others in usefulness and sympathetic attractiveness through 
education, refinement and social intercourse. Consequently, the more 
readily and generally the duty of fraternity is fulfilled, the more tol- 
erant, forbearing and compassionate man is, the more communicative 
of his knowledge, the more considerate in his regard for the feelings 
of others, the niore gracefully and unassumingly he deports himself — 
the more genteel and accomplished he is, the happier his life, the more 
religiously and sensibly does he act; and the more universal such 
enlightenment in a nation, the more civilized a people composed of 



such ladies and gentlemen, and the more conspicuous the truth of 
republicanism, which alone g-uarantees the independence of man. 

Therefore no system of government is compatible with civilization 
in the fullest sense of the word, in which man, its first principle, its 
true idiom and object, is precluded from, is not considered morally fit 
for self-government; who, possessing the attribute of moral fitness, as 
emerged from cannibalism and heathenism, and with reasoning powers 
unimpaired, has unquestionably the right, from the fact that he adds 
at least some share of usefulness to the common wealth, of demanding 
participation in a government which consolidates but for the one object, 
and, unitedly only, successfully carries it out: the ennobling of man — 
the happiness and usefulness of all in the presence of God. 

In order that all mankind may adopt our precedent, we, finding at 
least the European nations abundantly prepared for self-government, 
which is daily ascertained from the Grerman and Frencn as well as any 
other immigrant to whom we grant the vote and whom we receive into 
the bosom of our commonwealth with the kindness and trust of a 
friend — consequently whose brother (unfortunately for us left behind) 
is equally fit for voting there — it becomes not only necessary but a duty 
incumbent on the American people, as the most happy portion of the 
fraternity of mankind, of illustrating by all manner of means the 
direct efiect of our institutions upon the happiness of men residing 
here and forming the American nation, to all foreigners outside, for 
their special edification and encouragement. 

This duty effectually to carry out, which obviously is of such inesti- 
mable ajsthetic worth to civilization, appears and becomes imperative 
from the standiDoint of our institutions, by which we foster a care for 
the interest of humanity in all places and at all times; while officially 
their peaceable tenor prescribes observance of strict neutrality in all 
international affairs. It includes the hope for an universal law ere 
long to be agreed upon and passed, by which wars may henceforth be 
peremptorily avoided through mutual obligations of settling all unto- 
wardly arising political dissensions by arbitration — substituting 
for expensive standing armies the economical volunteer system and 
similarly humane, rational and judicious derivations. 

As an agreeable task, cheerfully undertaken, it is satisfactorily 
accomplished by manfully expressing our gratitude for the happiness 
we as a nation enjoy under the banner of freedom in this country, on 
all occasions, publicly and privately— availing ourselves especially of 
every foreign imbroglio to do so. 

Such a feature would undoubtedly show its efficiency abroad because 
of its lawfulness and access to the censors. It convinces. To vituper- 
atively denounce monarchical governments, or to praise our own in a 
pompous manner, could not be thought of an instant; both attempts 



at making the desired impression would prove altogether futile — the 
former with the ignorant abroad creating hatred, and with the pow- 
ful a scornful delight ; while the latter would present the American 
citizen altogether in a wrong light, likewise falling short of effect. 

No; if the truth must be told, let every one prove his words by his 
residence in this country, and not for whole years in European capi- 
tals; by his quiet contenteduess here, so envied by the wealthiest 
roaming cosmopolite; b}^ his studied silence of opinion in regard to 
wars as unelating and disagreeably obvious of misery; by a profound 
disregard of the hollowuess of a mere and altogether unreputed 
appearance of man, as best stilling in the bud the spirit of aristocratic 
intolerance; by a liberal acknowledgement of talent here and abroad; 
by lavish exhibitions of industry in this countr^^, while promptly fre- 
quenting those of Europe ; and by the diminution in the cost of 
steamship travel and of letter postage, viewed as the carriers of civili- 
zation, which make known to the world the truth of republics and 
influence emigration ; and we cannot fail in drawing the attention of 
all foreign people upon us, touch with dignity and due effect the 
pernicious pride of the aristocrat, the obstinate enemy of fraternity 
and good will toward all men — the stoic skeptic in the religious trnth 
of the republic — and we shall succeed in arousing an earnest 
longing and a fluttering among all classes to either emigrate here 
or to be similarly free and happy there, leaving man's opinion to 
mature on the spot, from the richness of facts received in double-quick 
time. 

These facts, vividly illustrated, as they shall depict life in the 
United States in all phases of a veritably unsurpassed jji'ogress in civ- 
ilization, the cause of freedom, of man's personal independence in this 
country; and of all the appliances of civilized life — free schools, a free 
press and free labor — and not of favorable natural advantages and a 
thinly-populated country only, so often, with lamentable ignorance, 
held forth as an argument by men, strange to say, in our very midst: 
these proofs are daily abundantly given, and are hourly carried by 
telegrajDh and by steam, in person, to and fro, the world over; in 
books and in letters, by millions; are magnificently displayed by the 
fabulous wealth of our commerce at home and abroad; then again, by 
the unknown existence at any time of a poverty-stricken multitude in 
our large cities, as one of the greatest blessings which republics only 
afford, where men are sworn by the vote to the duty of ameliorating 
the condition of one another, in order that all be drawn to the surface 
of ease and comfort, and no partiality shown in detriment to the 
divine rights of another, while purposely remiss in adulation of the 
wealth of the man whose individual usefulness to the country at large 
does not stand in exact proportion to it, or whose moral example is 



none, nor his heart known tp pulsate audibly for love as well as 
public charities, as in the case of a charitable bachelor millionaire 
acquiring with enormous wealth the peculiar duty of judicious^ dis- 
posing of the greater part of it to the public before he dies; by the eti- 
quette of our National Grovernment, which expects of the best of men 
as well as the most useful and learned to say to himself, " There are 
others aspiring to what I once honorably craved and now glory in, 
of having successfully attained"; by the less than nominal expense to 
the wealthiest nation upon earth of the care for the bodily comfort of 
the inmates of the White House, as in concert with the habits of the 
real American, who values wealth but as a medium of carrying out 
intelligent ideas — worthless to him as a clap-trap for either power, 
glory or fashion; and rising as another brilliant star to outshine the 
allurements of Europe, where the retinue of courts serves as a gas by 
which the fashionable avenues of trade are lit up; then, again, by 
the innumerable institutions of benevolence; by the respect and cour- 
tesy shown to every lady in every station of life; by the protection 
given and license of freedom granted to every child ; and, above all, 
by the Press, in the light of a daily producer and conveyancer of 
wholesome as well as delicious nutriment for the mind of man, serving, 
caring and ambulancing the wounded hearts of mankind, without 
intermission, to the glory of civilization, besides being the most irre- 
pressible arm of Freedom, the ever invulnerable shield of Liberty. 

By such means as those enumerated, which we know are in con- 
stant, active use, and always on the increase ever since the telegraph and 
steam — in reality the manual hands of civilization, — have almost anni- 
hilated geographical distances, it appears an utter impossibility for the 
leading European nations to adhere any longer to monarchical govern- 
ernments and classifications of society which are not only unnatural 
but superannuated by the force of universal enlightenment. As a 
standard truth, this assertion is verified by the full weight of the 
naturalization oath resting upon it which the intelligent foreigner 
takes in this country when, from conviction and sheer intelligence, he 
abjures all allegiance to royalty as inconsistent with his conception of 
what is humanly right. In doing so he likewise abjures all sympathy 
with the usurped power of its mandates and adopts this country as his 
only home, because of its entire freedom from arbitrary and hereditary 
individual power, and with institutions drafted to that effect, as afford- 
ing him the desired and expected guarantee for, and a permanent 
and peaceable enjoyment of, all his own individual and lawful rights. 

In order to produce in California, or America generally, a synoptical 
portraiture sufficiently explanatory of the various causes which led to 
this memorable war, is perhaps preferably done by translating from 
some work, well spoken of on the continent of Europe, instead of going 



to the infinite trouble of comj^ilingit here. It possesses the considera- 
ble advantage of making- the reader acquainted, in a piquant manner, 
with many local incidents otherwise unattainable, yet indispensable, on 
account of their elucidating events, r<;/ien and where these have occurred 
— items of importance in historical literature, and really serviceable for 
better comprehension of the general subject under view . Besides, as little 
lights of history, they are duly retained, destined of dispersing, to some 
extent, the gloom which is cast over the mind during the perusal of 
belletristic works, by their throwing an electric glare of truthfulness 
over the dismal pages of nightly ignorance and gory battle-fields, 
which latter the}' jDoint out with unerring precision, and by the force 
of the limpid, spasmodic dazzleness peculiar to the artificial nature of 
that extraordinary light, awake in every one anew the hope w^hich 
precedes the glorious daylight of enlightenment, that wars be altogether 
eschewed through an obligatory international law, and its obedience 
practically enforced among the nations, through the establishment of 
a republican form of government. 

As republicanism is the highest tribunal of civilization, it wields the 
executive power of impartial justice to all men, mainly through the 
institutional or lawful jprovision of peace, the ethereal shield of liberty, 
protecting life, individually and collectively, nationally and internation- 
ally, publicly and privately, at all hazards. 

In times of peace only, as obviously is the object of civilization, 
the individual happiness of man, to an universal extent, duly at- 
tained, in full accordance with religion, which teaches us through 
natui-e that God, creating man to live, intends him to die a natural 
death. To expose one's self to an unnatural death, or worse, precipitate 
it intentionally, is, therefore — the one a personal fault, and the other an 
uncivilized action — similar to insanity, hereditary or not, which, caused 
by disease of the vital brain, the consequence of an unwise life uncongru- 
ous of nature, proves that life stands entirely unconnected with the time 
of death, as so chastely and omnipotently veiled by God only. Then 
again, the local items above referred to mournfully serve as links in 
the chain of study, how far this war has detained the march of prog- 
ress — although it must be admitted that any war, like sin, once com- 
mitted, is a step nearer atonement, which signifies, in regard to politics, 
that by the ready avowal of republican institutions, as redeeming a 
nation from sin by freeing it from the last remnant of barbarism, may 
render it in future more prosperous, and each individual better 
and happier. In the sSme proportion that the Christian religion 
stands to Paganism, civilization to barbarism, peace to war, the quick 
spread of republicanism to universal popular enlightenment, so sure it 
is that its advance in Europe stands parallel to the influence which it 
receives from the United States of America. Revered by us as a politi- 



cal as well as private acme of justice, and accordingly practiced as a 
national law, in all international affairs. Peace is the Minerva of Liberty 
in a free country, the Aurora Australis, which lovingly animates the 
power of virtue, enabling man's happiness to unfold itself through 
life in all its pristine purity and strength, and the terrestrial temple of 
the soul, in which the conscience of man piously worships God. As 
such America introduces republicanism into the civilized world, sub- 
stantiated by our greatness as a nation — the incontestible proof of 
man's incomparable happiness, here attained under the canopy of in- 
dependence as well as of heaven. 

No longer a matter of time, but of absolute certainty in this en- 
lightened age, of succeeding in making republicanism universally 
appreciated, it requires but reduction of expense and of time in our 
steamship travel and in letter postage. The more we gain ujDon anni- 
hilation of geographical distances by telegraph and steam, the speedier 
we shall attain to the desired end of elevating all nations into political 
manhood, affording them proj)er opportunities to copy from us, as 
the living example. By thus constantly increasing the number of our 
steamers, plying between America and Europe, and the world at large, at 
the smaller an expense of passage and of freight moneys as practical 
the better, increasing likewise the speed of travel, if at all possible, as 
valuing time, we shall unfailingly bring about the desideratum — the 
great point at issue in civilization — an increase of the explanation be- 
tween brother and brother, which knows of no hindrance, fears no 
censor — is the sunny light of reason and of love, which goes to heart, 
convinces, and succeeds. This reflection is drawn directly from the 
uncontrovertible fact that Europe has gained more in liberal ideas since 
the days of steamship travel, bringing it into frequent contact with 
America, than its progress in that direction amounted to ever since the 
invasion by the Huns, and which progress in the practical promulga- 
tion of civilizing principles is bound to increase in exact proportion to 
the tide of immigration setting in here strongly, which ebbs its fer- 
tilizing truths through the lunar agency of sublunary happiness into the 
hearts of all mankind, arousing them to be faithful and unfailing in 
their own sovereign independence as republicans. 

Every information in regard to European affairs generally, received 
in America, whether officially or privately, it ought to be borne in mind 
is furnished from abroad by aliens, who as such are unfortunately 
biassed in the judgment of international affairs, from the very nature 
of their governments, as consequent upon the conventional life the 
people traditionally lead as rigid adherents to caste ; less indeed from 
ignorance and prejudice, or good intentions in many individual cases, 
concerning the duty of elevating man to the moral standard of social 
equality, than what appears to us a willful and sinful lack of determina- 



8 

tion of familiarizing themselves with, and without any more circumlocu- 
tory ado in this age, adopt our system of government, in which that stand- 
ard is secured to sill as a form and basis of civilization, as they have 
had ample opportunity afforded them during a hundi'ed years, of 
doing so. 

I have already shown in the introductory of this work that the Ger- 
man and French, as well as any other immigTant here, proves to a 
fault that his relatives he left behind possess to a like degree the proper 
fitness for self-government there, and that dire necessity no longer 
legitimatizes monarchical governments, where the people have by uni- 
versal enlightenment emanciiDated themselves from an original^ bar- 
barous condition of unfitness to live peaceably and within the 
boundaries of law, but that, proving now to be enlightened they ought 
to know that government is not a compulsory institution among ijvac- 
tically, intelligent, and unbigoted beings, but merely a clerkship of 
the nation, composed of every body as an integral, a natural, and an in- 
devisable part, and should never be dreaded as an instrument of arbi- 
trary power ; on the contrary, may well and should be loved as a huge 
law office, in which the legitimate rights and the sacred welfare of 
man are in quite a fraternal manner broadly and intelHgently discussed 
in the eyes of God. 

The judgment of the powerful abroad with reference to war — re- 
sorted to in order to adjust difficulties, as if they still lived in mediseval 
ages, in which the rational being had not the full intellectual force of 
fortitude at his disposal of combating with and of controlling the 
infuriated senses of man and nations, constantly embarrasses us of 
conceiving as justly, because bloodshed never coincides with noble or 
brave acts, constituting enlightenment, nor ever was, or is now at this 
period of the world's history, in accord with civilization, in which 
peace at all hazards, in the settlement of difficulties, both privately and 
politically, predominates as the principal characteristic, and rises on 
the horizon of enlightenment as the most brilliant star, guiding man 
through the dark labyrinthic nights of ignorance. We therefore 
rigidly practice it as a nation, as in adherence to the superior wisdom, 
and in proper conformity of the charitable principles pervading all our 
institutions and industrious habits of life, confident that with the spread 
of repubhcs man's unhappiness will everywhere disappear from sight 
altogether. 

In regard to historical productions, they dwindle down to a mere 
clever recital of authenticated occurrences, not at all elating in them- 
selves ; on the contrary, and in reality, very ijitiable in their sad con- 
sequences of so much sanguinary awfulness and general misery they 
entail, sternly demanding no positively necessary attention beyond 
tearful, and of course substantial succor, except that in every one of 



9 

us it shotild arouse anew the one overwlielmingiy sacred duty, amenda- 
tory of such misery, and incumbent upon an American to comply with, 
and as a man of honor and personified truth cheerfully and voluntarily to 
fulfill, which is to express his gratitude for our institutions, under 
which, in peace and amidst plenty, he, and every one, is blessed, and can 
live happily, who labors, acts sensibly, studying contentment and health, 
and which is not the case in any other nation to such an approxima- 
tingiy universal extent, but should be the case the world over. Such 
an avowal is not only always timely, but especially so now. It strenu- 
ously draws the attention of the world upon us, in order that foreign 
nations be led to respect us by such a manful demonstration of a 
proper feeling of nationality, which, while it honors us, refutes but 
their stubborn unbelief in the superior merits of our institutions ; it 
is theory practically applied. For sheer want of such morally con- 
vincing proofs they remained so deplorably long in ignorance of the 
manifold blessings they afford, openl}'^ derided them, even held the 
same in abuse for selfish purposes of their own, in no accord with 
either the conscience of the rulers nor the intellectual greatness of a 
nation so duped, showing it quite conclusively that the chances here- 
tofore afforded them for knowing America well, and of thoroughly 
estimating its vast moral power, did anything but sufiice. 

Availing themselves of the misfortunes to man, monarchs covertly 
denounced republics as a conglomeration of lawlessness, when secretly 
at heart they fear the promulgation of the eternal truth of the equality 
of man's mind for culture in the eyes of the civilized world, as laying 
bare their position of aristocrats as untenable in this age, and pointing 
with decimating effect towards the ruse of the origin of their preroga- 
tives as altogether unwarrantable, because devoid of charity and gen- 
erosity to fellow-men, and as to a hereditary right to them the absurdity 
appearing like a dense fog, which disperses only when the sun rises — 
then not the shadow of a vapor remains to justify it. 

A sort of tomahawk they still use in blasphemously quoting the 
Bible as authority of the will of God that rule and servitude should 
exist on earth, and cite nature as legitimatizing coercion, when from a 
study of the same nature we are taking quite a different version, and 
find that it leaves us at a loss how to conceive man irrational. Reason, 
therefore, by the strong, unobtrusive power of which we conceive and 
comj)rehend God's love of all mankind alike, as our bright vision be- 
holds man living in inimitably animated forms of anatomically perfect 
construction and equality, leading us to the decorous demeanor of 
justice and kindness tovv^ard one another in the paths of private life, 
led us to unanimously declare our independence from man's aggres- 
sion upon another's rights, and politically accomplish a gathering of 
free and good men, denominated the republic, which significantly in- 



10 

eludes all mankind. That its security be imperishable, and the world 
may readily adhere to its sacred vows, we gathered into it all the avail- 
able principles which render man good, and consequently happy, so as 
to serve not only us for the time being, but all mankind forever. 

Upon this truly religious and equally rational comprehension of 
God's will rests our conviction that all nations will arrive at the appre- 
ciation and adoption of the republican form of government, the t'nn.o. 
for their proclamation being fixed according to the advance reached in 
general intelligence by the people universally. 

That in sjjite of the Christian religion, which the civilized world has 
adojjted, on account of its incomparably humanizing principles, but 
we, and a few other but thinly popiilated countries, have as yet fol- 
lowed its divinely moral teachings, which although so near common 
sense, appear still so distantin time of application, proves the difficulty of 
the task, that without the aid of all, republican principles cannot be 
thoroughly appreciated, inasmuch as universal enlightenment and per- 
sonal worth, based upon education, and, above all, a diffusion of a 
fraternal spirit of amiability and generosity are indispensable requisites 
for the due attainment to its desirable, ultimate end. 

WM. E. F. KRATJSE. 

San Francisco, February 22d, 1871. 



THE y^J^Ti. 



It appears that on tlie 19tli of July, 1870, the Emperor of the 
French declared war against Germany, to the great astonishment and 
surprise of the peoj)le of the latter cotmtry, there being no palpable 
reason for a necessity of any such warlike demonstration on his part. 
It was, therefore, quite natural that the German people united in pre- 
venting serious mischief, leaving internal controversies pending — as is 
always the case when a foreign foe is intermeddling or intruding. 
This patriotic feeling became the more intensified the more ifc became 
known, from the various pretexts advanced, proving to be shallow, that 
they covered nothing less than a deliberate design upon the independ- 
ence and the freedom of the German people, thus forcibly reminding 
them of the great war of liberty in bygone days, and securing for this 
one that unanimous action v/hich augurs victory from the commence- 
ment by its energetic execution, as inspired by the very holiness of the 
cause of " the defence of national freedom." 

What these pretexts were which the Emperor of the French ad- 
vanced for the inauguration of the war, and his real intentions en- 
shrouded by them, that has to be enunciated, that the latter, although 
of a twofold nature, as being dynastical or personal, and political or 
traditional, were by him blended into one determined design of ag- 
grandizing upon Germany. 

During his entire reign the care for his throne, and a continuancy 
of his dynasty, has actuated his policy at home and abroad, availing 
himself of the influence of the church upon the peasantry, likewise of the 
Imperialists, and of the army, with whom the name of Napoleon bears 
a charm, and of the majority of the middle classes, who were his 
staunch supporters, because they feared anarchy. By such aids he 
held successfully in check the Bourbons, the Orleanists, the Liberals, 
and even the Kepublicans, always occupying the army in a manner 
satisfactory to their martial spirit. But ever since his transatlantic ad- 
ventures in Mexico, the French nation, a liberty-loving people, began 
to show their sagacity by leaning towards the espousal of the rej^ubli- 
ean cause, exhibiting this inborn desire to be free ; in other words, in- 
dependent of the rule of any man whomsoever born of woman— 
publicly and unmistakably — ^which showed Napoleon that not only had 
republicanism and enlightenment largely increased in France since 
1848, but that his throne was tottering in consequence, and his dynasty 
in jeopardy of expiring. Such a calamity to his imperial self -inter- 



12 

ests he had two ways of encounteiiug — either by war with a neighbor- 
ing nation or by a plebiscitum. Both were slippery and dangerous to 
traverse. As to a war abroad, there was but one really popular, a war 
with Germany, as answering the political traditions of France. In 
case of victory, it would be considered by the nation as an answer 
received to the queries of Leipsic, Waterloo, and Koniggratz, accom- 
panied by the Rhenish provinccr^, so ardently and persistently coveted, 
as a pledge of the sincerity of future friendship. 

But be it understood, in case of victory only, that the very attempt 
of making victory a condition was not only hazardous in the extreme, 
but fatal to himself and dynasty in case of defeat; while of course by 
dictating peace from Bei-lin, his power would become indestructible 
from that day, as far as the arbitrary rule of a monarch can find sub- 
missive supporters in oppression. Delay, however, was out of the 
question, because of the imminent danger of his position, denying the 
dif&cuity and nature of available means to avert it. 

The idea of going to war with Germany, so daring in itself, became 
preposterous when it was considered that France was not at all pre- 
pared for it. The genius of Napoleon, correctly estimating the press- 
ure of time, therefore, abstained for the present from this mode of 
procedure, and adopted first the peaceable way — not, however, losing 
sight of the dilemma wherein he might be placed of risking at any 
time his fortune by war, for which untoward neceessity he never 
flagged of preparing with consummate precision. His resolution now 
was taken; votes were cast, he standing well in the eyes of the world 
as the elect of the French people — thanks to the clergy, the prefects and 
the maires. Still it was not enough. A liberty-loving people require 
proofs, not words. Concessions they wanted, and concessions Napo- 
leon now made. To the astonishment of France tit was a new Consti- 
tution, well framed, which he gave, at the same time with a majority 
in the House devoted to himself which would secure for him, at all 
times, personal control of all important decisions generally. 

In spite of these apparent successes, France was observed to be still 
in a ferment, the cause being that during the plebiscitum many had 
voted aye upon condition that no war should be declared; but then 
again — and what constituted more than his misgivings — the army, the 
main pillar of the Napoleonic Empire, to the figure of 43,000 strong — 
just about one in ten — had voted nay. 

In the French Senate there was next observed a very obstinate and 
energetic minority rising to awake stormy debates, proving to Napo- 
leon still more demonstratively the waning of his power, notwith- 
standing his success at the elections. 

Several years had so elapsed, during which the greatest activity 
was displayed and persevered in to procure the necessary material for 



13 

war. The preparations were upon such, a gigantic scale that all the 
world might have guessed correctly who was meant by it, leaving 
nothing doubtful but the moment of time for the outbreak of war. Na- 
poleon therefore decided upon war with Prussia and Germany, but 
endeavoring first to attain to the same object by diplomatic means. The 
object of course remained the Rhenish Provinces and the annexation 
of Belgium ; and as the genius of Napoleon is well known to befit 
him more conspicuously for diplomacy than the battle-field, he tried to 
effect the object by diplomacy. It was as early as 1862, during the 
Mexican exj^edition, that he made the first attempt of absorbing Bel- 
gium and adjusting the Rhenish, frontier with the assistance of 
Prussia, consulting Count Bismark anterior to the Count's acceptance 
of the portfolio of Prime Minister of Prussia. This defined to the world 
the position of France in the German-Danish war in favor of the allies. 
But when the Treaty of Gastein, between Austria and Prussia, was 
signed, he immediately changed his tactics, showing a marked un- 
friendliness towards the latter country, accountable for only on the fear 
that a too intimate friendship between Austria and Prussia would 
deprive him of the fruits of his diplomacy in the German-Danish war. 

About the same time Bismark gave Napoleon, at St. Cloud, a 
general outline of his views upon Germany, while Napoleon responded 
with his views upon Belgium, without further comment on either part 
upon the feasibihty of the execution of these plans. The silence of 
Count Bismark on this occasion. Napoleon interpreted in favor of his 
plans, having expected that the war between Austria and Prussia 
would be fought in 1865, and instantly approached Prussia with 
friendly overtures upon the rupture between Austria and Prussia 
becoming imminent — availing himself of the presence of Prince Napo- 
leon in Berlin, as well as other confi.dential agents, to propose various 
schemes for enlarging their respective boundaries. In one case it was 
Luxembourgh; in another, the boundary of 1814, together with Lan- 
dou and Sar-Louis ; then again, touching larger objects — for instance, 
the territory of the French-speaking Swiss or the boundary of Pied- 
mont to be adjusted according to the language most prevalent among 
the people. 

All this occurred previous to the war betv/een Austria and Prussia 
in 1866, and in May of that year the proposals assumed the shape of 
an offensive and defensive alliance, of which Count Bismark made 
mention in his circular of the 29th of July, 1870, the Count stating that : 

Firstly — In case of a Congress, it should be unanimously declared 
that Venetia be ceded to Italy, and the Duchies of the Elbe to Prussia. 

Second— fiihovld these cessions not be realized, then an offensive 
and defensive alliance. 



14 

Third — The King of Prvissia would commence hostilities within 
ten days from the adjournment of Congress. 

Fourth — Should Congress not at all assemble, Prussia to take the 
field thirty daj's after the signatures to the agreement in question had 
been exchanged. 

Fifth — The Emperor of the French to declare war to Austria as 
soon as hostilities between Austria and Prussia should have com- 
menced; to take the held in thirt}^ ^^J^, with 300,000 men. 

Sixth — l^o separate ]Deace with Austria should be made. 

Seventh — Peace to be concluded upon the following conditions: 
Venetia to Italy; the German terrritories mentioned, footing up about 
seven to eight millions of population, upon choice, to Priissia; besides 
Federal reform in the Prussian sense of view. To France, the terri- 
tory between the Moselle and the Rhine, with a population of 500,000, 
without the strong fortresses of Coblentz and Mayence; the section of 
Bavaria uj)on the left bank of the Rhine ; the cities of Birkenfield, 
Hombui-g and Darmstadt, with a total population of 213,000. 

Eighth — After the signatures to this treaty be obtained, a military 
convention would be agreed upon between France and Prussia. 

Ninth — The King of Italy should be a party to the convention. 

The number of troops with which the Emperor of the French 
should assist the King of Prussia, according to Article V, was men- 
tioned at 300,000 men, and the population to be acquired by France 
1,800,000, according to a somewhat superficial census. 

Here, adds Count Bismark, every one more specially acquainted 
with the diplomacy and militaiy history of the year 1866, may fathom 
the political intentions which France had in regard to Italy, with 
which it likewise secretly treated, and later acted upon with both 
Prussia and Italy. Prussia, however, firmly declining, in June, 1866, 
the alliance above mentioned, notwithstanding its threatening pressure 
on the part of France on several occasions, the French Government 
had now to rely upon victory of the Austrians over the Prussians and 
what diplomatic advantages they might secure to themselves from 
such a defeat. That the proposed Congress would have had the effect 
of allowing the three months time to elapse without affording Prussia 
the chance of making use of the treaty which existed betwen Prussia 
and Italy, is well known ; likewise how France was active in regard to 
Custozza, to jeapardize Prussia's interests. The anything but enviable 
position of the French Minister of State, M. Rouher, serves as a com- 
mentary to these transactions. 

From that day France never ceased to allure Prussia with projects 
detrimental to Germany and Belgium. The impossibility of consent 
of the Count of Bismark to these schemes was obvious ; yet in the 
interest of peace, by acceding to nothing, even verbally, the Count 



15 

suffered the French statesmen to enjoy their illusions delightfully, and 
during- as much time as j)ossible, considering that a deprivation of 
their lioiDCS by way of an abrupt astonishment would endanger the 
peace of not only Germany but Europe, which to cherish was the 
decided advantage of all. 

The Count was not of opinion to prevent a war with France, 
because it being inevitable ; he counted upon Providence as unveiling 
the future, and was right. * Even victory he considered an evil, as 
viewed from the high principle of civilization. He could not but 
calculate upon the possibility of radical changes in France and in 
French politics, which might altogether do away with the threatening 
aspect of war between Germany and France — a hope, indeed, well 
worthy his silence. 

A-fter the end of the correspondence with the King of the Nether- 
lands in regard to Luxembourg, France repealed her proposals to 
Prussia in regard to Belgium and Southern Germany. During that 
conjuncture, the Benedetti manuscript was transmitted. That the 
French Ambassador should have committed himself, and, without 
authorization from his sovereign, should himself have made proposals, 
placing them in the Count's hands, conferring with him repeatedly, 
modifying the meaning of the writing, is as improbable and unlikely 
as on another occasion it was stated that the Emperor Napoleon 
never consented to the fortress of Mayence being ceded, which demand 
was officially made to Prussia through the French Ambassador in 
August, 1866, Avith threats of war if refused. 

The various phases of French dislike and war delights Avhich hap- 
pened from 1866 to 1869, very nearly coincide with the signs of incli- 
nation and disinclination for it which the French agents thought the 
Count had inadventently at times betrayed to them. 

In March, 1868, at the time of the Belgian Eailway trouble. Count 
Bismark states he was given to understand by a person of high rank, 
undoubtedly acquainted with former negotiations in regard to this diffi- 
culty that, in case the French should occupy Belgium — "Nous trouver- 
ions Men noire Belgique ailleurs." In a similar manner, on former 
occasions, the Count was induced to consider that France, in a settle- 
ment of the Oriental question, could not absorb her share in the far 
Orient, but on the frontier. 

The Count had the impression that nothing but a sure conviction 
that success with Prussia, to get at more territory, was impossible, 
would induce Napoleon to try his best to prevent Prussia having any 
success of the sort. 

The Count had every reason to believe that, had this question not 
been made public, France would have to offer proposals to us after 
knowing we were ready for war, to advance upon Europe with a mil- 



16 

lion of men, and carry, by force of arms, tlie proposals previously 
made, ^dz : to make peace either before or after the first battle, entirely 
at the expense of Belgium, according to Benedetti's proposals. 

In regard to these proposals, the manuscript which we have posses- 
sion of was the handwriting of Count Benedetti's, upon paper of 
the Imperial French Embassy, and recognized as such by the various 
Embassadors and Charge d' Affairs of Austria, Grreat Britain, Russia, 
Baden, Bavaria, Belgium, Hesse, Italy, Saxony, Turkey and Wturten- 
berg. 

In ^ii-ticle I, Count Benedetti, during the first reading, passed the 
last sentence — putting it in parenthesis — after the Count had told him 
that it meant an interference of France into the internal affairs of 
Germany Avhich he, the Count, could not submit to even in documents 
held private and in his keeping. Of his own accord he altered in Arti- 
cle II, on the margin, some sentence of less consequence. Lord Aug. 
Loftus had verbally been made aware of the existence of this docu- 
ment on the 2-lth inst, and as the noble Lord doubted it, invited him 
to inspect it himself. This he did on the 27th, and was convinced that 
it was in the handwriting of his former French colleague. 

That the Imperial Cabinet to-day denies these overtures, which 
since 181-1 it accompanied with alternating promises and threats, in 
order to hurry us into submission, is quite explainable as matters now 
stand. 

This remarkable document from the manuscript of the treaty to 
which Signor B. refers in his dispatch, reads as follows: 

H. M., the King of Prussia, and H. M., the Emperor of the 
French, considering it useful to strengthen still more the bonds of 
friendship which now happily exist between them and their respective 
nations as neighbors, and, on the other hand, convinced that they are 
dutifully obliged to satisfactorily settle questions in regard to the 
future of both nations, upon the result of which rests the peace of the 
world, have for this purpose concluded to propose the following treaty, 
having appointed as their respective representatives, H. M., etc.; 
H. M., etc.; who, after having exchanged their credentials and found 
them correct, have agreed upon the following articles: 

Article I. H. M., the Emperor of the French, admits and 
acknowledges the acquisitions made by Prussia in her late war with 
Austria and the allies of Austria, as well as submits to the stejos taken 
already, and to be taken, by Prussia, for the formation of a Noi^th 
G-erman Union, and obligates himself at the same time to assist in 
maintaining it. 

Article II. H. M. , the King of Prussia, promises to facilitate the 
acquisition of Luxumbourg by France; to which end H. M. shall con- 



17 

fer with H. M., the King of the Netherlands, in order to induce that 
sovereign to cede to the Emperor of the French his rights to the 
Dukedom for a fair compensation or in some other way, the Emperor 
of the French paying all costs and charges. 

Article III. H. M., the Emperor of the French shall not oppose 
a federal union of North Germany with the States of the South, 
Austria excepted, which Confederacy should have a Parliament, but 
so formed that the sovereign rights of the divers States should be 
respected. 

Article IV. In case circumstances should arise which shall induce 
H. M. , the Emperor of the French, to cross with his army the frontier 
of Belgium , for the purpose of conquest of that country, the King of 
Prussia shall assist France with troops and with all his might, by land 
and by sea, against any other nation which should declare war to 
France on that account. 

Article V. For the purpose of a perfect execution of the aforesaid 
designs, H. M., the King of Prussia, and H. M., the Emperor of 
the French, by this agreement form an offensive and defensive alliance 
between themselves, which to respect they solemnly pledge them- 
selves; added to which their Majesties consider this alliance valid on 
all other occasions on which the integrity of either country might be 
jeopardized by a foreign foe, then to arm forthwith, being actuated 
by no scruples, admissible of no excuse for evading the alliance. 

Annexed is given a letter of Count Benedetti to Count Bismark, 
with the manuscript of the treaty, as both were received from the 
hands of the French Ambassador. 

The letter reads as follows, as published at the time in the Staats 

Anzeiger : 

My Dear President : In reply to the communication which I trans- 
mitted from Nikolsburg to Paris, in consequence of our conversation 
on the 26th ultimo., I have received from Vichy the plan for a secret 
convention, of which I beg to send you the inclosed copy. I hasten 
to acquaint you with it, that you may digest it at your leisure. I am 
at your service in talking the matter over with you at any time you 
shall desire it. Benedetti. 

Sunday, August 5, 1866. 

The manuscript of the plan for this treaty reads as follows : 

Article I. The French Empire again accedes to the lands which 
formed in 1814 the boundaries of France, and which to-day belong to 
Prussia. 



18 

Akticle II. Prussip pledges herself to obtain those lands which 
are on the left bank of the Rhine and belong to the King of Bavaria 
and the Grand Duke of Hesse, upon compensation to them for the 
same, and to cede possession of those lands to France. 

Article III. Those disj)ositions which connect with the G-erman 
Union such lands as are standing under the sovereignty of the King 
of Holland are canceled; likewise those which refer to such right to 
lands within the fortress of Luxembourg. 

In consequence of this note an official interview took place between 
the Count of Bismark and the French Ambassador, in which the latter 
insisted upon his demands being complied with, which had been pro- 
jected by him, and threatened Prussia with war if refused. Notwith- 
standing this, the Chancellor respectfully declined ; upon which the 
demand upon Lujxembourg was made, which likewise did not succeed; 
upon which, again, the more important demand upon Belgium was 
made, which formed the contents of Count Bismark's exj)lanatory dis- 
patch of July 29th, originally framed by Count Benedetti, and pub- 
lished in the Times. 

All these diplomatic versions demonstrate clearly that State and 
personal motives Avere blended by France into that traditional policy 
which Louis XIV originated, and which ever since the great French 
Revolution was rigorously adhered to. 

This ti-adition comprises points which no Government in France has 
ever slighted or lost sight of. 

Firstly — The Rhine is the natural boundary of France. 

Secondly — France is destined and therefore justified and obliged to 
be the leading power in Europe, and has to judge by arbitration in all 
political matters disturbing the peace of Europe, and considers itself 
duty bound to prevent other powers from doing anything without 
her will. This the French elaborately conceive and euphemistically 
and charmingly express by saying: " France marches at the head 
of civilization." 

Thirdly and finally — As an united Germany would not only en- 
danger, but cancel these rights, and affect the dignity and the interests 
of France ; in other words, the two points first mentioned, it must 
never be allowed to unite. Every attempt at this dangerous union 
must instantly be stifled, destroyed, and Germany kept down at all 
hazards. 

Shortly before hostilities commenced, the Moniteur expressed it ex- 
actly so : France merely intends keeping Europe in its normal con- 
dition and bring it back to its equilibrium, and is of opinion that a 
disunited Germany signifies an absolute division there in permanancy; 



19 

in which state of severed strength and consequent weakness of the 
Germans, as a nation, they, the French, have nothing to apprehend, 
and which opinion is even so yet to a far greater extent: they are 
wrong, because in preventing the consolidation of the German union, 
for political reasons of their .own, they injure the German people, 
morally and materially disabling them from abolishing every remnant 
of feudalism, through not allowing them the necessary peace of Eui'ope 
to succeed in it. 

If, therefore, the German nation at large had not at this juncture 
found itself providentially blessed with a Bismarck, whose patriotism 
and unfathomable genius took hold of the matter correctly, frustrating 
both their designs — the motive for the prevention of the German 
union, as well as the motive for the war, by conferring with the pres- 
ent Emperor of Germany, to appty the efficient strength which his 
great genius knew existed in the military and their leaders, a worse 
misery might have been entailed upon the German peojDle than is now 
lamented by the French, for reasons of the above named particularism, 
aggravated by the consequences of conquest, in which the uncontroll- 
able fury of the Kabyles figures among the undefensive. 

But not only to the Count Bismarck, but to the Emperor of Ger- 
many is the German nation forever indebted, who, as a sovereign, thus 
nobly appreciated the Count, enabling him to give full vent to and ex- 
ercise his genius and allowing him to use his discretion in the above 
two matters — he knowing full well what such a consolidation of Ger- 
many would eventually lead to, in times of undoubted national strength 
and general enlightenment, beyond the present temporary absorption 
of the attention of the people by the war. 

Returning from this digression to the balance of power in Europe, 
as viewed by the French nation, from their political tradition and ver- 
sion, it rests upon the validity and instrumentality of these aforesaid 
three points being maintained and adhered to. These formed, there- 
fore, the nominal reasons advanced by Napoleon and his ministers for 
the legitimacy and necessity of the war about to commence. 

How the Emperor of the Ffench and his ministers managed and 
succeeded in making this war sufficiently popular in France so as to be 
sanctioned by the people and undertaken, is best seen from a protocol of 
Coimt Bismark's, which he produced during the twenty-sixth sitting of 
the federal council, and which was laid before the German Parliament 
on the 20th July. In which protocol the Count says : "The events 
which during the last fortnight have transpired, disturbing the peace 
of Europe, plunging it into war, are so well known, that but a re- 
capitulation of facts is necessary to clearly define and comprehend the 
state of affairs at this moment. 

' ' Aware of the communication which the President of the Spanish 



20 

Ministerial Council made to the Cortes on the 11th of last month, like- 
Avise of the circular disjDatch of the Spanish Minister of Foreign Af- 
fairs, of the 7th inst. , published in the newspapers, and of the explanation 
which Senor Salazar had on the 8th inst. jDrinted in the Mazaredo of 
Madrid, explanatory of the Spanish Government having for months past 
negotiated with Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern for the acceptance 
of the crown of Spain, that these negotiations were directly made with 
the Prince and his father, through the medium of Senor Salazar, with- 
out participation and interference of any foreign government ; and, 
furthermore, that it is knoAvn that finally the Prince decided upon ac- 
ceptance of the proffered crown. His Majesty the King of Prussia, 
upon being made acquainted with this decision, concluded to let it pass, 
the Prince being of age could do as he liked, the more readily so as 
the Prince's father had given hi^5 consent to his son. Neither the For- 
eign Ollice of the North German Union nor the Government of the 
King of Prussia knew anything at all about it. They first heard of it 
through the telegram of the Paris Ilavat^, of the third evening, reporting 
that the Spanisli Government had decided upon offering the crown of 
Spain to Prince Leopold. On the 4th the French Charge D'Affairs 
presented himself at the Foreign 0£fice. By order of his government 
he was pained to state that this news had been very ill received at 
Paris, authenticated, as it had proved to be, by Marshal Prim, and 
asked whether Prussia was a party to it. Upon which the Secretary of 
State told him that it was no affair concerning the Prussian Govern- 
ment, nor Prussia in a position of explaining negotiations which might 
have been made by or were pending betweoji the President of the 
Spanish Cortes and Prince Leopold. 

" On the same day the Charg-o D'Affairs of the North German Union 
at Paris had an iutervie^v with the Duke of Grammont, relative to the 
same subject, and in presence of Minister Olivier." 



21 

It becomes here necessary to throw into high i-elief the moral and 
praiseworthy grounds and motives, upon which stands the executive 
of the Spanish nation before the world, when, seeing the republic 
as yet impossible, the consequence of a criminal neglect of free 
schools, it conferred upon a Prussian Prince the alternative of the 
honor to accept the government over the people, the so-called crown 
of Spain, as the best known guarantee to the Spanish nation for the 
time being of a peaceable future and probably great national advan- 
tages. Therefore the French Government, in preventing the con- 
summation of such a laudable design, by allowing political reasons 
and arbitrary actions to sway and impede the most noble impulses of 
civilization: those of an indirect and sympathetic co-operation with 
other nations besides their own in anxious strides towards national 
prosperity in general — laid bare a degree of officiousness and peevish- 
ness Avhich will never stand the paltry excuse for self-preservation; 
on the contrary, does demonstrate a fund of jealousy highly compli- 
mentary to Prussia, especially after the battle of Sadowa, and still 
more so by the remembrance of the Prussian Government of not hav- 
ing remonstrated with France at the time when one of the French 
Princes became the son-in-law of the King of Italy and brother-in-law 
to the Queen of Portugal, 

Fortunately for Europe, with its many warlike nations densely peo- 
pled and all votaries to past feudal glories of strife — civilization has 
comjDaratively of late astoundingly advanced in appliances and devel- 
opments of arts and sciences for the purpose of destroying the oppor- 
tunity that war, with all its exploits of personal bravery in self- 
defense, is affected to such an extent as to reduce that virtue, called 
personal courage to a mere reliance upon skill and strategy to butcher 
in bulk. The present war, of but seven months' duration, proves 
that a climax in the art of killing has about been reached, and by it 
the domineering j)ower of France over Europe transferred to the 
cool prowess, practiced scholarship, and compact strength of Ger- 
many. Peace thus shielded by Germany, is now sure to the warlike 
millions of Europe. . Germany will henceforth be to Europe what the 
Atlantic is to America: the safeguard against aggression. As long as 
monarchical surveillance shall be necessary among nations unfit to 
govern themselves, Germany is the country which knows how to 
guard peace from without and within. It will stand between and 
pacify Great Britain and Russia. Having taken the place of France 
in the balance of power in Europe, it will for many reasons always 
be listened to as a mediator. Therein successful, Germany is synony- 
mous of peace — it is the guarantee for future peace to Europe. As 
to any other cloud arising at any future time ujDon the political hori- 
zon of Europe, it v/ill give but weather lightning! 



22 

Returning to tlie intervieAV which the Chargo d'Aflfaires of the North 
German Union had with the Duke of Grammont relative to the Span- 
ish crown question, and in presence of Minister Ollivier, it is stated 
that the French Minister of State was on that occasion likewise cha- 
grined at the general news. Public opinion, he averred, would pro- 
nounce against it; a transaction of so grave an importance having 
been held so profoundly secret by both Spain and Prussia, and now 
having been made public, it could not jDOSsibly be otherAvise inferred 
but that France had been intentionally slighted. The main point at 
issue being indeed the most immaterial one, whether the Prussian 
Government were at all initiated into the attair or not, considering 
the magnitude of consequences as bound to issue from these pro- 
ceedings. Should, therefore, the event really take place, peace would 
be serioiisly jeopardized. It therefore were highly advisable to 
appeal to the wisdom of the King of Prussia to withhold his approval 
of said combination, now" that he was aware that as a secret it could 
serve no longer. The French Minister then considered it a happy 
omen that, it so happened that, Baron Werther being about to set out 
for Ems, could report to the king the irksome effect this affair had 
made in Paris, at the same time enabling Baron Werther of telegraph- 
ing at an early convenience to the French Minister any important 
decision arrived at in regard to and of a pacific nature to the subject. 
Baron AVerther left Paris on the fifth. On the day of the departure 
of Count Benedetti — Mr. Cochery brought the Spanish question 
before the legislative body, but already the day after, a sjjace of time 
far too brief for the reception of any return news from Ems, the 
Duke of Grammont responded to the interpellation of Mr. Cochery. 

The Duke's answer, of course, avowed the impossibility of knowing 
particulars in regard to the matter, yet he declared that with due 
regard for Sixain as a friendly neighboring nation , and resjDect for her 
sovereign right as to her conducting State affairs unmolestedly by any 
other nation, he, notwithstanding, could not suffer a foreign power to 
interfere b}- placing one of her princes upon the throne of Charles V. 
The consequences would be not only detrimental to the interests of 
France, but would disturb the balance of power in Euroj)e. Upon 
this statement having become public, it could not be expected of the 
Charge d' Affaires of the North German Union, who intended to com- 
municate with the Duke, that he should transmit to him any dis- 
patches at all. Instead of which he informed the German Embassy at 
Paris of it on the ninth, and exactly alike in substance to what the 
Prussian Government had on the fourth rendered in extent of informa- 
tion to the French Charge d'Aff'aires at Berlin. It amounted to this, 
that the Spanish throne question did not effect the political relations 
between Spain and Germany, but concerned Spain alone, as far as 



23 

the nature of the candidature for lier throne had made it needful for 
the Government of that country to go outside and fill it there. 'Thus, 
in reality, it was only nominally an international affair, but practically 
of importance only to none but the candidate himself. It was further 
stated that Marshal Prim had these negotiations privately undertaken 
without participation by the Prussian Government, and had directly 
conferred with Prince Leopold, the King of Prussia not having been 
found willing, out of respect for the will of the Spanish nation, to 
influence the acceptance of the offer by a German prince. 

In the meantime the French Government ordered the representative 
at Berlin, who happened to be on furlough at Wildbad, to repair to 
Ems. On the ninth the King of Prussia received Count Benedetti, 
although the circumstance of meeting at a watering place implied a 
desire on the part of the venerable King of at least not having to be too 
lengthily engaged in matters of State. The information which Count 
Benedetti then and there transmitted to the King of Prussia agreed 
with what the Duke of Grammont had communicated to Baron von 
Werther upon the same subject, amounting in substance to an appeal 
to the wisdom of the King not to sanction the acceptance of the Span- 
ish crown by Prince Leopold — a decision of such momen-t in the 
opinion of the French Government that it would be enough for 
Europe to thereby regain its quietude. Upon which the Count was 
diametrically given to understand, that the disquietude existing in 
Europe had not been created by Prussia, nor was the Prussian Gov- 
ernment to be blamed for it, but might at once be successfully traced 
into the inaccessible altitude of the legislative body of France. The 
troubles which the Spanish throne question had thus unnecessarily 
brought about, sprung from there. The volume of criticisms which 
had issued forth had, in its rapid course, submerged Europe, and 
endangered the peace of the world by its torrent of tribulations and 
anticipations of all sorts of hallucinations, and predictions of disas- 
trous consequences. His (the King's) position as head of the family 
of Hohenzollern, was exclusively and naturally one of a domestic 
character, admitting of no control over the sovereign will of any of 
its members in regard to the actions of a prince. As to affairs of 
State, those stood entirely unconnected with matters of personal 
interest. Neither the Prince and the Prince's father had by him been 
interfered with, nor the honor of the acceptance of the Crown of 
Spain by Prince Leopold been made the basis for private speculation 
on the part of the royal house of Prussia. 

On the twelfth instant Prince Leopold declined the candidature. 
The Prussian Government received the first tidings of this important 
step from Paris. It so happened that Baron von Werther having left 
Ems for Paris on the eleventh, and arriving the next day, was present 



24 

at an interview wliicli tlie Spanish Ambassador there had with the 
Duke of Gramniont, upon which occasion the telegram had been pro- 
duced which Prince Leopold had sent, transmitting his decision 
declining" the honor. Uj^on another occasion, later in the day, the 
Duke of Grammont remarked to Baron von Werther that, after all, 
the refusal of Prince Leopold was but of accessor}' consequence, inas- 
much as France would anyhow not have permitted the Prince to ascend 
the throne of Spain — at the same time laying great stress upon the 
slight inventively conceived to have been received at the hands of the 
King of Prussia, in having at all granted to the Prince the alternative 
of the acceptance of so important an offer without first consulting 
France in regard to it. However, the Duke appeared satisfied with 
the King of Prussia's explanation of the affair, in a letter to Napoleon, 
having said that in granting to Prince Leopold the alternative of the 
acceptance of the Crown of Spain, he had not been of opinion that the 
interests and dignity of France would thereby be necessarily affected. 
Now that the Prince had declined of his own free will, he (the King 
of Prussia) had, of coui'se, acquiesced to the decision of the Prince. 

The day following, at Ems, Count Beuedetti, upon meeting the 
King, requested a confirmation of the refusal as transmitted by the 
Prince, and an assurance besides that, at no future time, an accept- 
ance of this candidature by a German prince should be sanctioned by 
the King. From that day Count Benedetti had no more interviews 
with the King of Prussia. 

How the Government of France could seriously view the acceptance 
of the Crown of Spain by a German prince as positively dangerous to 
France, moreover profess it as an affront to the French nation, 
is inconceivable, otherwise than as a pretext for finding an excuse to 
declare Avar, and for no other earthly purpose than to dim the light 
of a rising star. All these subtilties and evasions serve as an evidence 
of the culpable weakness of monarchial governments, in which the 
nation is debarred by law from energetically interfering and uttering 
at the right moment its powerful voice of disapproval, and of insisting 
upon a peaceable settlement through the instrumentality of law and 
the aid of diplomacy. 

In the United States of America, such a case as was presented to 
the world in the shape of the preliminaries to this war, would be 
everywhere ridiculed. May be that boast is quite natural — the whole 
world could not invade America. The idea of succeeding in misling 
a whole nation to shoulder arms within, so to say, a day or 
two, betrays an ignorance on the part of all of the knowledge of 
common occurrences of the day, which stamps the daily press of 
France — the tutor of the million — as most deplorably deficient. The 
most plausible reason for a war against a large foe in Europe, when 



25 

by somebody advanced in Grreat Britain, is never listened to by the 
nation until the Orkne}^ Islands know as much about the legitimacy 
of the impossibility to avoid it as the Prime Minister himself. But 
England is in this respect altogether republican ; it differs but in 
name ; her monarchs are but hereditary presidents, drawing heavy 
salaries, though. — As it is undoubted that the King of Prussia was 
unofficially made acquainted with the negotiations pending between 
the Grovernment of S^Dain and Prince Leopold ; it enjoined upon him 
the condition of privacy when he heard of it. It being a foreign 
secret, officially affecting neither Prussia nor the North German 
Union, its non-publicity by the King to the German nation at large 
was decided upon as wise and proper. At the same time the King of 
Prussia found it equally correct in the Spanish Government that it 
should pursue its deliberations in search of a suitable candidate for 
the Spanish throne, without hesitancy and comj)unction as to where 
it should be pleased so to do, and the more independently, as the poli- 
tical position of Spain towards France invited this step, and in con- 
sideration, likewise, of certain personal amenities existing between 
Napoleon and the Southern branch of the House of Hohenzollern. 
As to the interests a Napoleonic dynasty could profess to have in a 
Spanish national question, it confined itself to a vigilant guard against 
the dreaded spread of republicanism or the organization of an Orleans 
dynasty in a neighboring country ; but to view a secret correspond- 
ence regarding the honor of the acceptance of the Spanish Crown by 
a German p^nce in the light of an intended affront by Prussia to the 
French nation, was, indeed, as significant of personal ambition as it 
was venturesome. Indeed it was too obvious that such rigor covered 
the existence of an ulterior design hostile to the German nation, 
as being not merely unwarrantable but altogether foreign to the inci- 
dent. If otherwise, all the French Government had to do in order to 
ward off the troublesome coincidence, was to have addressed the King 
of Prussia in a familiarly handsome manner upon the subject, pending 
a satisfactory settlement in a diplomatic way, instead of which the 
Napoleonic Government unhesitatingly rented the peace of Europe, 
by the Duke of Gammont, in the legislative body of Paris, violently 
calling the nation to war. To declare it, and uiDon so frivolous a pre- 
text as that of humbling the German nation, was, therefore, extremely 
impolitic and full of surmises, especially when dispassionately consid- 
ered that the science of destroying human lives by tens of thousands 
has reached its culminating climax to perfection, in producing woe 
and misery to an unanswerable extent, and must end in victory 
of republicanism over all monarchial governments extant. A sensible 
proceeding, if for no other purpose truly than of making peace inter- 



26 

nationally and lawfully respected and abided in hereafter, viewing it 
as the first necessity of civilization. 

In order to systematically arrange all the causes which have led to 
this memorable war, it is now necessary to produce the note which 
Sefior Sagasta, Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, transmitted to the 
various Spanish Ambassadors abroad, announcing the decision of the 
Spanish CTOvernnient to offer the crown of Spain to Prince Leoj)old. 
It is worded as follows : 

" Your Excellency have on previous occasions been made acquainted 
" with the important explanations Avhich Avere transmitted to the Coi*- 
" tez on June the 11th, by the President of the (Cabinet. In confessing 
" that the steps taken to find a siiitable candidate for the throne of 
" Spain had been unsiiccessful, he announced that he had received 
•'full power to continue his search to the best of his ability. He 
" had at first received this authorization from the Provisional Govern- 
" ment, then from the Executive Committee, and at last from the Ke- 
"gency. 

' ' Fortified with such j^ower, Marshal Prim recommenced his diffi- 
" cult mission in a discreet and secret manner, anticipating success, 
" and hoping io give satisfaction to the nation at large. I have now 
" the gratification of communicating to you, by order of the Spanish 
" Government, that at a Cabinet meeting held at La Granja, on the 
" fourth, and presided over by the Regent, Prince Leo])old of Hohen- 
' ' zollem Sigmaringen has been chosen and accepted as candidate for 
" the throne of Spain. Public opinion having pronounced in favor 
" of this Prince, the Government of Spain is hopeful that its candi- 
" date will be joyously heralded by a large majority in the Cortes as 
" King of Spain. The Provisional Government which began in 1868 
" shall then close, 

" Yesterday, as soon as it Avas possible to break silence, as until now 
" demanded by discretion, I telegraphed to you the decision arrived 
' ' at by the Government, which should best meet the approval of the 
' ' Cortes, strictly mindful of the general constitutional law of the land, 
" as well as of the rules which appertain to the choice of kings. In 
" requesting of you to announce this event to the Government to 
" which you are accredited, I alluded to its real and political im- 
" portance and significancy as unconnected with international affairs, 
' ' notwithstanding the great influence which it necessarily must exer- 
" cise upon and disclose to the Spanish nation in future. 

" The extraordinary situation of the nation, as created by the Sep- 
" tember revolution, had been well maintained by the Provisional 
" Government until the day when the Cortes decided upon monarchy. 
'' From that day, however, the Provisional Government became a 
' ' danger, because the wishes of the Spanish people as containing 



27 

" their preference had not then been realized by facts. Should, 
' ' therefore, the Government not find means and ways of realizing this 
" idea, her enemies would speedily gain ground and harass it by 
" unreasonable expectations of every sort. But these difficulties have 
" been obviated, thanks to the eiforts made by the majority of the 
" people, and by the Government — a rare occurrence, indeed, in any 
" civilized nation of having been able, under similarly trying circum- 
" stances, to maintain peace over two years. At last public opinion 
" at home and abroad loudly demanded a radical change. 

' ' In the interior of Spain the desire to crown the work of the revo- 
" lution became great, while in foreign countries, befriended with 
" Spain, the same wishes were expressed. The Avorld required a 
" guarantee for a permanent peace, as your Excellency has had fre- 
" quent opportunities of ascertaining. 

" This very success of which I have made mention affords the 
" Spanish Government to-day an opportunity^ of communicating 
" through your Excellency to the Government of * * *, and 
' ' which gratifying news I doubt not will be cordially received. Both 
" countries, indeed, reciprocate a feeling of sincere friendship, ani- 
" mated by expectations and wishes for its permanent continuancy. 
" The present Government of Spain has always exerted itself in its 
" foreign relations to merit public opinion, and benefit the Spanish 
" nation. 

" Should Prince Leopold be chosen to ascend the throne of Spain, 
" upon the vote of the Cortes, as alone invested by the people -vsHth 
" sovereign power to decide upon a prince's choice, and declare him. 
" King, then shall he represent a constitution the most democratically 
" liberal of any ever possessed of by us or by any other nation so and 
" similarly governed. Although he is a foreigner, about to occupy 
" the highest position in the gift of the nation, his Government will 
" have less difficulty in obeying public opinion than might be inferred 
' ' from the strange fact of he being a foreigner. From the day he 
" does ascend the throne of San Fernando he shall be considered a 
" Spaniard, and in a truly Spanish manner shall he continue to 
" strengthen the great achievements of the September revolution. 
" His energies shall be principally directed towards a comj^lete regen- 
' ' eracy of the nation in . her internal organization in all national 
" points of view, while externally he shall observe the strictest neu- 
" trality in all international relationshijDS, and shall thus be enabled 
" to devote all his studious efforts to the advancement of the moral 
' ' and material interests of the country, in order that through him the 
" object may be attained of making Spain prosper. In this sense it is 
' ' justifiable that the Government of the Regent, free to direct its 
" steps according to discretion, has acted in this matter upon its own 



28 

' responsibility, and addressed Prince Leopold directly, nor reflected 
' an instant ilpon it being honorable to avoid every influence from a 
' foreign Cabinet. I beg leave to direct your Excellency's special 
' attention to this point, as much depends upon it being reliably 
' known that the Government of the Regent has acted upon its oxon discretion 
' in furthering this plan, and so that it maybe thoroughly understood 
' that no national interest abroad, far less a foreign interest, has actu- 
' ated the Government in pursuance of these negotiations. 

" Nothing but the desire to grant the wishes of the nation, and to 
' fulfill the mission which the Regent and the Cabinet Ministers had 
' delineated, has prompted him to address a prince duly of age, and 
' related to most of the reigning families in Europe, at the same time 
' standing in no direct lineage of becoming the recipient of a special 
' crown, therefore free to accept and to become the possessor of the 
' one of Spain ; a point of importance to the Spanish nation, that it 
' might at all times feel secure against hostilities from foreign powers 
' upon dynastical ground. 

" Thus the candidature of the Prince of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen 
' interferes in no wise with the friendly relations which Spain enjoys 
' reciprocatedly abroad, nor can and should affect the interests of 
' other reigning families as dj'nastically allied. As your Excellency 
' is now assured of the intentions which animated the Government to 
' decide upon this candidature, which shall be duly laid before the 
' Cortes for acceptance, your Excellency will be able to act in con- 
' formity with the motives which have led to these intentions and 
' ultimate actions Avhenever an opportunity should present itself of 
' explaining this event at the court to which you are accredited. I 
' hold myself before hand convinced that your Excellency will zeal- 
' ously convey the exact meaning of the purposes in view which have 
' instigated the actions of the Government of his Highness. 

" Please read this dispatch to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and 
' then hand him a written copy. May God preserve your Excellency 
' many years. 

(Signed) "PRAREDES M. SAGASTA. 

" MADEro, 7th July, 1870." 

Upon this document now follows the answer which the Duke of 
Grammont gave, July 6th, in the legislative body at Paris, upon the 
interpellation of Mr. Cochery : 

The Duke replied that " Marshal Prim had offered the Crown of 
" Spain to the Prince of Hohenzollern, and that the Prince had 
' ' accepted the same. The Spanish people, however, had not expressed 
" themselves upon that point. The French Government was not 
" acquainted with the respective negotiations, and he (the Duke) 



29 

" thought best of adjourning the discussion upon this topic as alto- 
" gether deficient in particulars in order to correctly judge in the 
' ' matter. The Government would continue its neutrality, but would 
" not suffer a foreign power in placing one of her princes upon the 
" throne of Spain, and thus trespass upon the honor and dignity of 
" France. The French Government had confidence in the wisdom of 
' ' the German, and the friendship of the Spanish people. Should it be 
" disappointed, it would know its duty without delay and weakness." 

This speech was much applauded by the majority in the House, and 
commented upon, on the fifteenth of 'July, by Mr. Ollivier, viz. : 

" The mode and manner in which you have received the explana- 
" tions as rendered on the sixth of July, assures us positively that 
*' you sanction our policy, and that we could be sure of your assist- 
" ance in case of emergency. We, hereupon, entered into negotia- 
" tions with foreign powers, inviting them as mediators for the purpose 
" of convincing Prussia of the legitimacy of our complaints. We 
' ' have not required anything from Spain ; the sensitiveness of her 
"people we had no desire to evoke. We have not negotiated with 
" the Prince of Hohenzollern, because we considered that Prince 
" under the tutillage of the King of Prussia. We have abstained 
" from commingling complaints over other matters with this particu- 
" lar affair. The majority of foreign powers approve more or less of 
* ' the justice of our complaint ! 

The Prime Minister of Prussia has responded that he "knew nothing 
" of this affair, nor would the Cabinet of Berlin become cognizant of 
" it. We then addressed the King. The King avowing that he 
" had authorized the Prince of Hohenzollern to use his own judgment 
" in accepting the Crown of Spain, declared that he was not acquainted 
" with the particulars of the negotiations as pending between the 
" Prince of Hohenzollern and Spain, he having acted in this mat- 
*' ter as head of the family, and not as Sovereign. The King of 
*' Prussia, moreover, has mentioned that this affair had by him been 
" turned over to Count Bismarck, We could not accept this answer 
" as satisfactory ; we could not admit such delicate distinctions be- 
" tween ' head of a family' and 'head of a nation.' In the meantime 
" we received from the Spanish Ambassador the news of the refusal 
" of the Prince of Hohenzollern. It came unexpectedly, and from a 
" direction which we had not anticipated. This happened on the 
" twelfth of July, while our correspondence was going on with 
" Prussia. 

"We insisted that the King should second the refusal ; that he 
" should pledge himself not to give his sanction of the acceptance of 
" the Crown of Spain by a prince of Hohenzollern, should it at any 
" future time be again offered. Our demand was in itself moderate, 



30 

" and couched iu an equally decorous language. We then wrote to 
" Benedetti he might reiterate that we kept nothing under disguise, 
" nor were searching for pretexts. The King refusing to grant this 
" demand, told Count Benedetti that in this matter he preferred 
" keeping his own counsel, as well as on all similar occasions, as cir- 
" cumstances might arise which demanded full liberty of thought and 
" action on his part. 

"Notwithstanding, and out of sheer love of peace, we did not 
" break off negotiation. In proportion to our forbearance, was our 
" surprise great, when we heard yesterday that the King had officially 
"refused an audience of Benedetti which news had come over 
" from the Prussian Government. At the same time, we received in- 
" formation that the Prussian Ambassador, von Werther, had been 
" recalled, and that Prussia was arming. Under such circumstances 
" it would have been remiss, undignified, and forgetful of duty, on 
" our part, not to have made preparation for war. We have pre- 
" pai'ed ourselves to accept the challenge, leaving ever}"body his due 
" part to enact, and responsibility to answer for; we have since yester- 
" day called in the reserves and taken measures for the protection 
" of the interests, the security, and the honor of France." 

The conduct of Count Benedetti is best seen from the lucid de- 
sci-iption of the occurrence, and enables history to infer who really 
was the aggrieved party. 

Count Benedetti solicited on the 9th of July, in Ems, an audience 
of the King of Prussia, which was immediately granted. During 
this interview Count Benedetti demanded that the King should com- 
mand the Prince of Hohenzollern to withdraw his acceptance of the 
Spanish crown. The King replied that as far as this affair had devel- 
oped itself, he having been ajaplied to as head of the family, and not 
as King, he had not commanded the Prince to accept the candidature 
for the Spanish throne, nor could he now command the Prince to 
withdraw from the same. On the 11th following. Count Benedetti 
requested and was granted, a second audience, during which, he 
rather pressed compliance with his demands. The King replied that 
the Prince being of age, knew himself what course to pursue without 
his, the King's, interference. Besides, he knew not even the where- 
abouts of the Prince at present, as he had been known of late to travel 
among the Alps. 

On the 13th, on the Esplanade at Ems, the King handed Count 
Benedetti an extra from the Cologne Gazette, just received, containing 
a telegram from Sigmaringen, in which the Prince, upon his own free 
will, refused acceptance of the Crown of Spain, and mentioned to the 
Count, at the same time, that not even he himself had received a 
communication on the subject from the Prince, althougli, of course, 



31 

due during- the day. Count Benedetti hereupon replied that he had 
known it already, the night previously, direct from Paris. The King 
now thought the matter satisfactorily settled. To his astonishment, 
Count Benedetti demanded of the King that he should distinctly de- 
clare himself unwilling, at any future time, to grant a similar permis- 
sion. This the King flatly refused, and remained firm, although 
again and again importuned upon the same subject. Now Count 
Benedetti requested a third audience. Upon being asked by an aid- 
de-camp what he had of so much importance to communicate, he 
answered that he wished to have the honor of conversing upon the 
same topic as in the morning. The King refused the audience, send- 
ing him word that he had no other answer to give, and referred the 
Count to the Government at Berlin for further views upon the sub- 
ject. Count Benedetti, wishing to leave Ems, expressed a desire to 
pay a last visit to the King, which was granted, the King receiving 
him at the railway station, before the train started for Coblenz. 

From this minute description of the manner of Count Benedetti, in 
this affair, it might be inferred that he acted under instructions from the 
French Government, disguising two set purposes: the one, to either 
compromise the King in the eyes of all German^' and Europe, should 
he have acceded to their demands ; or, the other, the more likely, 
upon refusal of their compromising demands, incense the King of 
Prussia to such a degree that the French Government might therefrom 
weave the textile fabric of a casus belli. 

That there was a way of guarding dignity and right, and maintain 
both without having resort to war, appears to have been of unfath- 
omable depth in the minds of French statesmen, or maybe, that they 
considered such a possibility too unreal. Compared with them, how 
different the noble and dignified bearing of King William in this 
matter; that military, so amiable as a gentleman, not merely baffled 
the vileness of the snare laid for him to entrap himself in, but made 
it serve him in convincing the entire German nation that the intent of 
the insult received, was not for himself, but for the German Union. 
When it became known hoio he had resented that imputation, then 
the whole nation applauded him, and threw back with terrible vigor 
the attempt at disturbing the peace of Europe upon frivolous pretexts. 
From the manner in which the Duke of Grammont had answered the 
interpellation of Mr. Cochery, and Count Benedetti conducted his mis- 
sion, there could be no further doubt as to their intention of forcing 
a war. The peevish manner in which the Duke of Grammont had 
received the news of the refusal of the Prince of Hohenzollern, cor- 
roborated it to a certainty. Another proof may be found in the fol- 
lowing expose of Monsieur Ollivier: 

The Duke of Grammont having declared in a conversation he had 



32 

with Lord Lyons, tlie Eugiish Ambassador at Paris, that the refusal 
of the Prince Hohenzollern would smooth matters entirel}' in regard 
to the Spanish question^ — the London Cabinet at once endeavored to 
bring about a verity of the settlement. When subsequently the de- 
sired non-acceptance had been obtained, instead of expressing him- 
self satisfied, he declared to the English Embassador that it was very 
perplexing. On the one side public opinion was so aghast that he 
doubted very much that the Government could maintain itself beyond 
the morrow, if he should say the affair was satisfactorily settled, 
unless more satisfaction could be obtained from Prussia and produced. 
The very refusal of the Prince should here have ended the origin of 
the dispute, and settled the affair de facto; instead of which, the pro- 
gramme of war was completely rehearsed by France. 

As to Spain, it could no longer be drawn into the quarrel should it 
come to war, as Prance and Prussia now onl}' were concerned. The 
English Ambassador remonstrating with the Duke, the latter evasively 
said, that everything dejiended now upon the conclusion to be arrived 
at to-morrow, the IStli of Ju^ly, at a Cabinet meeting, presided over 
by the Emperor, and which decision would at once be handed over to 
the Legislative body, and he be unable to communicate to him. It 
appears, however, that in the sitting referred to, no resolutions were 
arrived at, for the Duke of Grammont had to annoimce to the Legis- 
lative body: " that the negotiations which we continue with Prussia, 
" and which at no time embraced another point, have not, as yet, 
"been concluded." 

To the Ambassador of the North German Union, Baron von 
"Werther, the Duke of Grammont unburdened himself, on the 12th of 
July, without restraint. The refusal of the Prince of Hohenzollern 
he considered, as before stated, of very little importance, inasmuch 
as the French Government would have anyhow prevented his ascen- 
sion to the throne of Spain; it was the secret manner in which it had 
been done, which had vexed him, and he feared would create an ill 
feeling between the two nations. Moreover, he actually demanded 
a letter from the King apologizing to the Emperor; proposed contents; 
in short, became so ludicrous, and at the same time autocratic, as to 
make one think that he had suddenly transplanted himself into the 
days of Louis XTV". The exposd of Minister Ollivier on the 15th of 
July, the day on which the French declared war against Germany, 
was no less peremptory. Introducing the subject, he said: "We 
" have not required anything of Spain, nor are willing to touch the sen- 
" sibilities of the Spanish nation. Then in regard to the permission 
" given by King William to the Prince to use his own judgment in ac- 
" cepting the crown, and to the demand made by France to withdraw 
"that permission, he said: "We could not receive the answer as 



33 

" satisfactory, it being too subtle a distinction for us to acquiesce 
"to father of the family and father of the nation," which plainly 
proves, inasmuch as the distinction between one and the other is not at 
all subtle, or could not be readily acquiesced to, that Napoleon 
wanted war at all hazards. 

Throwing all the blame for the war upon Prussia, because the King 
had not received Benedetti, that "the Prussian Ambassador had been 
" recalled, and Prussia was arming," OUivier wound up by saying : 
" We are prepared to accept the war which is offered to us." Upon 
which the G-ermans answered the French as did the Komans the Car- 
thagenians : "You will have war — well, war you shall have !" 

3 










PART THE SECOND. 



NAPOLEON'S CALCULATIONS, 

AND THE 



When Napoleon had decided upon war a.i^ainst Prussia and its 
probable allies, four years had elapsed during- which time he had 
prepared for it. He had minutely weighed his resources and those 
of his antagonists, considered and reconsidered the alliances which 
might possibly be his ; in short, thought of having omitted nothing 
which might debar him of success. 

In the first instance he counted upon the enthusiastic and excitable 
nature of the French people. He thought the very chance offered to 
regain the so-called " natural " boundary of France should add new 
glory and new honors to the "great nation" of Europe, wipe out 
the blots of Leipzig, Waterloo and Sadowa, and secure still more last- 
ingly the ambition of France to be the guardian of Europe; all these 
points he thought would silence the various factions in the country, 
inimical to, and endangering his dynasty, and would bring back to 
him the army in admiration and devotion, without which, he well 
knew he could not guard his throne against the republicans. 

In this he was mistaken. The France of 1870 was not the France 
in the sense of the first Napoleonic empire, the less so as he had not 
the power the first Napoleon wielded, which, however, was necessary 
to convince all parties of the intelligence of his grand idea, and of 
the justice of the cause, for which the war should be fought and lives 
and property risked and staked. Instead of which, factions in- 
creased, stormy debates in the Legislative body became frequent, the 
demand arose for him to abdicate, without desire, "in favor of his 
son," as the latter was not even mentioned. Of course this demand 
originated with the Republicans, but the Orleanists were equally de- 
monstrative, although silent iipon their aim. This in their stead did 
the Empress Eugenie, who openly said that Napoleon's fall would in- 
stall the Orleans. From the ranks of the army it was occasionally 



35 

predicted that even the outbreak of war would not better Napoleon's 
position. A French officer, later in captivity, said to a German: 
" Oh, you and your army know well what you fight for; you go to 
"war to carry out a fixed idea; but we fight to gratify the whims and 
" caprices of two ladies. He meant the Empress Eugenie and the 
" Ex- Queen Isabella of Spain." 

The second consideration of Napoleon comprised the dissensions 
which jealousy created among the many German sovereigns and vari- 
ous political factions. He had assiduously exerted himself to find 
out the exact truth in regard to it, which has become well known 
through the French Embassy at Stuttgart in Wurtemberg, whith 
proiDOunded 41 questions on the subject, as follows, which proves 
his Napoleonic designs: 

1. How were the parties situated in Wurtemberg previously to the 
war of 1866 ? 

2. What changes have the events of 1866 produced in these parties. 

3. How strong is the Democratic party; how strong the Catholic; 
how strong the Prussian or Union; how- strong the Anti-Prussian or 
Conservative party ? 

4. Which is their modus operandi of gaining strength ? Who are 
the leaders among these parties, who are the most influential persons ? 
What newspapers have they got ? 

5. Which party has gained the most popularity and has the best 
auspices for future success ? 

6. What are the views of the various classes of society? 

7. Is the dynasty popular ? Has it a party of its own? WoiQd 
these risk everything to defend it ? 

8 Are there any political events of note which have transpired 
since 1866? 

9. What are their principle laws, duly passed by both Houses ? 

10. How do the parties in the first House confront each other since 
the war ? How in the second House ? 

11. What effect has the new army organization had upon the peo- 
ple ? What the duty on tobacco ? on salt ? and what views in regard 
to the loan ? 

12. How do the people like the new law of election ? and how do 
they regard universal suffrage ? 

18. What will be the effect of it in future ? 

14. What is the opinion of the people in regard to the organization 
of the army ? and in how far has it been successful ? 

15. What is the situation of Wurtemberg in point of advance in 
industry and commerce ? 

16. What effect have the late events had upon commerce and 
industry ? 



36 

17 . Has general prosperity increased ? 

18. What is the amount of the annual value of their exports at 
present ? and of their imports ? 

19. What effect have the events of 18GG had on 'Change ? 

20. The most im^Dortant event of the last two years is the tariff dis- 
cussion. What do the peox^le think and say of it ? Do they predict 
for it a future ? 

21. What is the cause of the defeat of the Prussian party during 
the tariff elections ? 

22. Why did they not succeed in a Southern German Union ? 

•23. What creates the jealousy among the Southern German States ? 
(divise ?) 

24. Are the material interests of the South such as to be hazarded 
by a formation of a Southern Union ? 

25. Are the general interests of the South identically those of the 
North ? Can these at all be separated? AVhat are these interests ? 

26. Are there not affiliations of reciprocated interests between South 
Germany and Austria. 

27. Could it not be made at all possible to create a vast commerce 
between the East and the West : between South Germany and the 
countries bordering on the Adriatic ? 

28. What is the Prussian policy in regard to the Southern German 
States ? 

29. Has it abandoned the idea of the Union of Germany ? 

30. Why does Austria not try to regain its influence in South 
Germany ? 

31. What policy does the i^resent Government in Wurtemberg pur- 
sue ? What is its position towards the other parties ? Towards Prus- 
sia ? towards Austria ? 

32. Does it regret the alliance, offensive and defensive, with Prussia ? 

33. In case of war would AVurtemberg be an ally of Prussia ? 

34. In case of war with Prussia would France find allies in the 
South of Germany ? 

35. Is the devotion of the Wurtemberg army great? 

36. Why does the Wurtemberg Government persist in prussianiz- 
ing (prussianiser) her arm}'' still more ? 

37. Does the Government seek entrance into the North German 
Union ? 

38. What are the political views and general tendencies of the 
principle members of the Cabinet ? 

39. What political influence does Queen Olga enjoy ? 

40. Does Kussia befriend and assist Wurtemberg ? 

41. As matters now stand, can this state of affairs last? Does it 
lead to some non-chimerical predictions in future ? 



37 

UXDon these forty-one and otlier similar queries, the respective 
French charge d'affaires, must have answered, more or less, suitable 
to the plans of the Parisian Cabinet. With how great a certainty the 
French Government counted upon the alliance of the South German 
States with France, in case of war with Prussia, and upon what mo- 
tives it thought the various South German Governments would be 
thereto prompted, may be partially seen from the ebullition of temper 
which Count Moosburg, French charge d'affaires atCarlsruhe, Baden, 
gave vent to, in a fit of diplomatic indiscretion, when, hearing of a decla- 
ation of war by Bavaria to France, he finally ejaculated : "I 
" cannot understand it : — The Emperor Napoleon meant it well with 
" the King of Bavaria, and intended to assist him in enlarging the 
" boundaries of his Kingdom." This episode shows, more than any- 
thing, the want of penetration on the part of the French agents in 
correctly fathoming public opinion, and the advanced and enlightened 
patriotism of Germany, as it had of late matured: mainly owing to 
free and good public schools, and the influence everywhere in Europe, 
and especially in Germany, from the United States of America, as 
the model of nations, in which, above all other proofs of civilization, 
the National Union is sacredly revered and defended by the people as 
an imperishable bulwark of solid and invulnerable strength. 

Entirely owing to incorrect views upon progress in Germany, the 
French Cabinet was lulled into the belief that the same animosity ex- 
isted among the German Princes, which facilitated the military achiev- 
ments of the First Napoleon there, and, consequently now would those 
of Napoleon III. The Parisians, far too exclusive citizens, seldom 
going outside of beautiful France, nor the reminiscences of her past 
glory, thought little of Germany from 1813 up to 1848; somewhat 
more since 1864. and 1866, until now, when enlightenment upon the 
general progress of the world forces itself upon them in rather an ec- 
latant manner. Another misguidance was, that the French Govern- 
ment thought the newly acquired provinces of Prussia maintained still 
a traditionally barbarous idolatry of discontent and envy among 
themselves. The belief originated from Hietzing, where it was taken 
for granted that theHannoverians, the Nassau people, the Hessians, 
the people of Schleswig-Holstein, and the citizens of Frankfort-on- 
the-Main would hail with delight the victorious French armies, and 
would be found anxious to free themselves from the nick-named 
"Prussian Yoke." This additionally tended to encourage the 
French Government in expecting success without adequate eftbrts; in 
short, to see the days of the first Empire repeated, culminating in the 
dictating of peace at and from Konigsberg, and similar hallucinations. 
Then again. Napoleon III relied upon Denmark and Austria as his 
allies the moment war should be declared. He considered both as 



38 

natiirall}^ allied to his cause, as they were hereditary enemies of Prus- 
sia, falliug short, however, iii his reckouiug by uot reliecting upon 
the situation in which both Denmark and Austria were placed. He 
anticipated some diversion on their part, advantageous to French 
arms, but never anticipated they would not fight. Denmark, he 
thought, might have ventured it by risking the fortunes of war, 
although, alone, it was too weak, and the aid which France could so 
give, confined to naval attacks onl}-. Neither had Swedeii an interest 
in so doing; by becoming an ally of Denmark in a war with Prussia 
setting aside the probability that in rotation Russia would have 
attacked Sweden. 

Both Sweden, as well as Denmark, Avere therefore forced to remain 
neutral, unless the latter had been indiscreet enough in taking a 
course by Avhich it would have risked its very existence. 

Of Austria it was supposed an alliance with France might be ex- 
pected; but the internal condition of that country, at that time, kept 
a strain ujjon its ability to do so. Besides the Austrian German pro- 
vinces always stand by Germany. As to Hungary, it did not even 
listen to an alliance, as Russia might have found a pretext for uncere- 
moniously absorbing Galicia. Nor had Austria recovered from the 
shock of 1866 ; her army was not prepared to front an antagonist, 
well armed and but lately victorious ; her treasury was likewise not 
sufficiently encouraging to undertake a war against Prussia ; and as 
to internal dissensions respecting her crown lands, those were con- 
stant and alarming : in fact have gained an importance that the pros- 
perity of Austria is, through them, seriously retarded, and its free- 
dom of action paralized. 

From these remarks it may be seen that Louis Napoleon was disap- 
pointed as to those aforesaid alliances. No less was he in error in 
regard to the two great powers of Europe — Great Britain and Rus- 
sia, England, he thought, might become his ally on account of 
Hanover ; yet it was not so : England does not go to war frivolously 
with civilized nations. And as to Russia, the Emperor of all the 
Russias answered the French Embassador, upon being asked permis- 
sion to transmit the Czar's well wishes for the French arms, " My 
wishes for France go by way of Germany." As to Italy, it remained 
neutral because the people were found unanimously in favor of Ger- 
many, while the Government was in favor of France, a very danger- 
ous devise, indeed, to be abruptly disrespected. Even Turkey 
remained neutral. 

Great Britain and Russia, the two leading European powers, be- 
sides a united Germany and France, were found disinclined to declare 
themselves enemies of Germany. 



39 

Great Britain in thus regretting tlie still existing yet tiresome alli- 
ance with France, which had led to the treaty of Paris of the thirtieth 
of March, 1856 — nothing shorter than an ei:)itaph upon the graves of 
the Scottish Greys at Balaklawa, and others then and there uselessly 
slain — truly the bitter cup of a political blunder of not having allied 
herself at the time with modest but substantial Prussia, kindred to her 
in race and religion, instead of heterogenious, vain-glorious France, 
unnatural to her feelings and traditions — the sure precursor of the 
natural consequence of such a mistake as "the thirteenth of March, 
1871," plainly denominated the " Pontus boundary question ratified." 
By whom? Russia and Turkey, and Germany, France, Austria, and 
Italy. And where? In London! as it should have been done already, 
in 1855, peaceably, instead of upon the Malakoft". 

This great power remained passive during this terrible war of 1870. 
She had no further desire to uphold a dynasty which she once was 
most vigorously active in destroying, and regarded as forever banished 
far into the broad bosom of the Atlantic, until suddenly and com- 
pletely beguiled by Gallia. England's Pitt, Fox, Canning, or the 
later Palmerston, unfortunately no more, proud Albion was weak, 
and yielded to the syren. But the English nation soon rued its 
unheard of sentimentality when it saw arise, right opposite Ports- 
mouth, another's — a /?"i«icZ's— formidable Cherbourg, from which Na- 
poleon intended, after the programme of having conquered Germany, 
to invade England. So she thought correctly — better late than 
never — and stood aloof. Moreover, the shadow of old Blucher, and 
others of Waterloo and Blenheim memory, during the period of this 
war, having suddenly reappeared at Sadowa in the person of the 
greatest strategist of this century, named " General Moltke," and 
better informed b}^ her own child than France was through Colonel 
Stoffel, of the true and solid growth and strength of Germany in 
enlightenment and moral courage, she felt the proper sympathy for 
Germany, thought of sweet home of old England, was wise and 
remained there, quietly watching her daughter and a little foster- 
ling across the Channel, to Ostend. In s]3ite of Earl Granville's igno- 
ble remark, on the nineteenth of July, that the French would visit 
Berlin in three weeks, the once staunch allies of Prussia at Waterloo, 
the British nation, repudiated the idea, and respectfully begged leave 
to be excused from believing any such or similar nonsense. The 
British know why Prussia has to be a military nation — why its stern 
discipline. The interpellation of D'Israeli's premising a secret under- 
standing between Russia and Prussia, as having existed anterior to the 
war, was decidedly spiritualistic, and too infidel altogether, for a saga- 
cious and powerfxil nation like the English to be intimidated by. 
Besides, Great Britain had internally changed very much, indeed, 



40 

since her uuiiatural alliauce with France, which has served Napoleon 
in his phantastic designs at the expense of British lives in the Crimean 
war, and England nothing whatever, because, neither Suez nor even 
Constantinople are the keys to India, hut Aden and Massowah only, 
which it is not likely that all Europe will touch. As to entering 
India via Persia, although feasible at various points, Persia first would 
have to be conquered by Russia — too remote a day to now expect its 
consummation — setting aside the ease with which Great Britain could 
at all times land her armies on Persian soil via Herat in the North, as 
well as via the Straits of Ormus in the South. 

Routes like the Paropomisan Mountains, leading into the extreme 
north of Afghanistan, through interminable deserts first, ere these are 
reached on such an Hannibal adventure, are too impracticable to be 
even thought of without railroads of infinite extent traversing the 
dreary steppes of independent Turkey, and innumerable steamships 
to be built on the Volga, and crossing the Caspian Sea towards the 
South, before even the inhospitable mountains itselves shall come in 
sight of by the Russians. 

The powerful influence of England in Europe, as formerly wielded 
by an ambitious aristocracy, requiring heavy sacrifices, but somewhat 
recompensing the nation with their successes, is felt no longer. The 
first Parliamentary reform bill forced the aristocracy to a division of 
power with the gentry, upon which ensued the second Parliamentary 
reform bill, which even now is but a few years old, and suits the jjeople 
so well, that, should Gladstone's bill pass concerning secret elections, 
and waving of costs at elections, there can be no farther doubt of the 
national party coming into power. With such a change it is no won- 
der that her international policy is materially altered, general interests 
of humanity predominating with Manchester men, eschewing traditional 
military glory. Instead of war — diplomacy, free schools, versus gen- 
eral uncharitableness. None of the people censured the parties who 
sold arms and ammunition to the French, although it increased the 
misery and prolonged the agony of the inglorious ally of the Govern- 
ment, but solvent customers withal. Wise people all over the world 
are in the habit of making a little something by the folly of others ; 
in fact, are necessitated in the very face of civilization to counteract 
a stagnated commerce and the robbing of a virtuous peace by accel- 
erating the end of war. It is one way, a new and very radical one, this 
methodical killing by the ten thousand, which is bound to put a 
stop to quarreling, outrooting wars altogether. It will serve as a pre- 
ventive, horrid as it is, until the blessed school book shall have 
enlightened the million to feel its abhorrence, and so keenly as to 
shun it as a barbarous way of settling difficulties, having made man to 
man sufferable in daily social intercourse, amiable and law-abiding, 



41 

In the hands of Germany, at least, the weapon of war is safe. A 
hard task, though, to keep peace among two hundred and eighty mill- 
ions upon so small a ground as Europe, unless assisted in by the 
working people, who form the millions and are the soldiers to be 
killed, that they connect to denounce every war except leading to 
republican independence. 

Upon the pages of history the Anglo-French alliance is but a waste 
of sixteen years ; to Great Britain, however, an everlasting lesson that 
the power of civilization is vested in the Germanic race mainly, to which 
she and her colonies America, and Germany belong. Their triumvirate 
directs the intellectual and physical world, shields Christianity against 
barbarism, worships God from the innermost soul, and gives readiest 
access of free schools to the poorest of the poor, encircling and com- 
prising all. 

Like the American Union succeeded in quieting the Kebellion, even 
the French Bepublic has since execrated hers, so has Germany at 
last succeeded in baffling the equivocal designs of past monarchical 
France in regard to Southern Germany, and neither Great Britain nor 
Russia shall ever regret their neutrality, which enabled the Southern 
German States to appreciate Prussia, and her disinterested national 
policy. 

As to Russia, the immediate and formidable neighbor of Germany, 
it was natural that Prussia should have been anxious to secure her 
neutrality by expressing a willingness to assist in pushing aside the 
Pontus treaty, so humiliating to not only the Czar, but the entire Rus- 
sian nation. But of a further understanding than this, between the 
two nations' history has no clue. Russia's policy in regard to Ger- 
many has been quite logical. Her boundaries on the Baltic are not 
sufficiently wide, although she succeeded during the last century in 
conquering from Sweden several provinces, which annihilated the 
supremacy of the Swedes upon the Baltic; yet she was not sure 
of Germany uniting with Denmark for the purpose of blockading 
the Baltic so as to hinder her free egress. As long as Germany was 
disunited, it of course was impossible; the several single German 
States, even when united with Denmark, would not have been able to 
cope with Russia, On the other side, Denmark could not possibly 
have pursued an anti-Russian policy and united with one or the other 
of the German States as long as in possession of Schleswig and Hol- 
stein, which necessitated her intention to embrace an anti-German 
policy, in which she relied upon Russia to assist her in securing pos- 
session. 

Russia, like France, uncharitably trusting in the disunion of Ger- 
many, thought Schleswig andHolstein, an integral part of Denmark, 
the German provinces of Russia, Russian; Hanover, English ; The 
4 



42 

Dutch, a distinct nation, Holland; the Flemish peoi^le, Belgium; and 
Alsace and Lorraine, French; 14 millions Germans of the Austrian 
empire of 34 millions population, Austrian — leaving out Switzerland, 
which stands aloof — a republic. But Kussia, when recovered frbin 
the shock of 1812-15, had been perfectly absorbed until 1856 by the 
attention she had to bestow upon the consequence of the war of lib- 
erty of the Greeks, and felt herself too weak to declare war against the 
German Union without an ally, with the problematical issue in view 
of becoming mistress of the Baltic. Therefore she abided by the 
dictation of the Congress at Vienna, which enabled her to serve as 
umbrage to both Prussia and Austria. The war of 1863-64 against 
Denmark by both Prussia and Austria, threw Eussia, in common 
with France, off the track. No nation comprehended the policy of 
Prussia endeavoring to accomj)lish the German Union without Aus- 
tria. In the Austrian-Pi-ussian war she hoped France would join 
Austria, so that Russia joining Prussia, might after the war, together 
with France, as being equally anxious to prevent the consummation of 
the German Union, frame conditions detrimental to the cause of Ger- 
many. But France was engaged with Italy, and absorbed in the 
reorganization of her own arm}^ so that Russia was obliged, together 
with all other nations, to observe the issue of the war without solic- 
ited interference. The interests of both nations, Russia and I'rance, 
collide the least of any in Europe. The war in the Crimea changed 
somewhat this enleinte. Russia's war, in Palestine, with France, 
• assumed dimensions which did not suit France. Although careless as 
to Russia's j^rogress in Turkey, if satisfactorily recompensed, after 
peace was declared at Paris-France was prevented by Great Britain, 
the avowed antagonist of Russia, to ally herself more closely with 
Russia . The^ battle of Sadowa, alarming both Russia and France, 
these nations tried hard to seduce the Southern German States to 
infidelity and unfaithfulness towards the Fatherland of the Germans,and 
to strengthen Austria in her ancient German policy. Suddenly France 
declared war in 1870 against Prussia. Impatient, and not properly 
prepared, though sufficiently informed by Colonel Stoffel of the mili- 
tary strength of the North German Union, it became evident that the 
rash act itself emanated from Paris alone. The dynasty of Napoleon 
waning, the nation nevertheless became clamorous for outside trans- 
actions. How Napoleon and the French nation were both doomed to 
disappointment, history has shown. Russia not prepared and in 
want of all communicative aid, remained neutral; an alliance with 
France was by no means sure to lead to victory over Germany, so 
that she should become sole mistress of the Baltic and gain France 
over to her plans in the southeast of Europe. As one of the great 
powers of Europe, Russia, like Great Britain, was fully aware that 



43 

the victor in a German-French war would change the balance of 
power in Europe. Yet, in a European war at large, her interests 
seriously collided with those of Great Britain, and knowing that Ger- 
many was anxious to fight it out alone with France, while France 
tried hard to give the war the dimensions of a European one, she, 
like Great Britain, remained neutral at the risk which she could not 
obviate, of losing some of her political prestige among the nations 
of the world. 

The fact of the neutrality of Russia, as well as that of all other 
large nations, explains the sympathy'" for Germany all over the world. 
Victor over France without any aid whatsoever, it blots out the pages 
of the history of the First Napoleon, which the French themselves 
have thrown into eternal oblivion by the destruction of the Arc of 
Triumph, demonstrating thereby that France has sworn fidelity to the 
Republic, and by that simple act elevated herself to a higher stand- 
ard of civilization than any other nation in EuroiDe, with the excej^tion 
of Switzerland, has as yet de facto reached and enjoyed. 

The neutrality of Austria, since the battles of Sadowa and Konigs- 
gratz was added to the neutrality of Russia: The one of Italy by the 
desire for Union, and universal education, by means of free schools 
throughout all other Catholic countries, upon the American and Prus- 
sian plan. As in nations, so in individuals throughout the world: the 
intelligent and well informed have sided with Germany, to the credit 
of civilization and their own honorable impartiality; and be it well 
understood, that not only the various Governments, but the great 
million were imbued with the necessity of Germany superseding the 
power of France so as to hereafter afford peace as the principal 
condiment of civilization, for the purpose of paving the way to Eu- 
ropean Republicanism. No better proof is more convincing or can 
be more gratifying than that the vast millions of Germany at least 
possessed this understanding of their real interest in this war as well 
as knew of the more cosmopolitan advantages which would accrue 
to them from victory, than was demonstrated by the mechanics and 
working classes of Gratz, Austria. At a time much later in the his- 
tory of the war, when victories had been obtained (thanks to the love 
of right and justice of the Germans) their courage and enlighten- 
ment in mastering beforehand their own ancient and now forgotten 
feuds and passions — those Austrian mechanics issued a manifest to 
United Germany which augurs extremely well for the peaceful future 
of their common fatherland. A nation composed of such bone and 
sinew may now already vie with America, for there is no longer any 
chance for either extreme : rebellion or despotism, dismember- 
ment or treachery. They said, " In consideration that it has become 
" apparent that the developments of liberty and the rights of nations 



44 

" can be secured only through a permanent European peace, of 
' ' which a powerful and invincible Germany is the guarantee now and 
" forever, and in consideration that the French nation has availed 
" itself of its former supremacy of power, to enfeeble all other nations, 
" blaspheming- liberty while the Germans have totally excelled them 
" by cosmopolitan views of life, and the exercise of justice in j)olitical 
" matters, 

" Be it Resolved, by the German Republican (democratischer Club*) 
" that the welfare of mankind, the developement and security of lib- 
" erty, require that Germany brings the present war then only to a 

*'The democracy of Europe comprises the republican element there, after the 
American definition of radicalism in party sentiment here, but, in monarchies 
abroad, is, of course, not lawfully enacted, therefore, without revolution, remains 
secret and inotiectivo in public. 

The confusion of these names, Democracy and llepublicauism, does great harm 
in America, where the brave immigrant landing upon our blessed shores is beguiled 
by the name only of voting, in due time of citizenship, the democratic ticket, not 
knowing that ticket is legitimately subdivided, and does not alone and exclusively 
embody the principles of American or lawful republicanism, nor that freedom neces- 
sarily signifies an unanimous sentiment in regard to the manner and means by Avhich 
liberty in a free coiintry reaches, is enacted and enjoyed of by everybody. Not 
being aware of either that there should be a republican party necessary besides a 
democratic one, for the better working of the machinery of government, he, upon 
hearing of it, often remains prejudiced, through the force of habit, against the repub- 
lican party, imagining that, after all, the latter may signify a tendency, like in bon- 
daged Europe, towards lawlessness and rebellion. 

That both the democratic party as well as the republican, with their many minor 
subdivisions, more or less radical, constitute harmonious and integral parts of the 
sworn and legitimate Republic of the United States of America at large, versus and 
in eternal distinction and defense of, against monarchism and blood aristocracy of 
the world, synonymous, the latter with hereditary and concrete imposition upon jus- 
tice, through criminal neglect of duty to alike educate the people ; as well as through 
the upholding of exclusive privileges of man to the palpable detriment of the rights 
of fellow-men, from a religious and charitably humane and equitable point of view, 
he, the emigrant, does not at once entirely comprehend, nor that democracy differs 
from republicanism in miniite form and various axioms of conservatism. 

Inexj)erienced why it is absolutely necessary that both parties should here exist, 
in order to separately, at the polls, yet conjointly in force, fully draw out the 
strength of the mind and will of a free and independent citizen and voter, who con- 
stitutes the American nation at large, it may be useful to foreigners to here state 
that thereby the Government is eff'ectually prevented from at any time relapsing 
into a barbarous incongruity and European idolatry, insidioiisly undermining the 
strength of justice and of right, so put in imperishable republican form, and now 
nearly centennially ancient. 

Inasmuch as truth is in itself im]5erishable as characterizing the inimitable works 
of Creation, in our species is founded in and is perpetuated by a well-drawn-out 
and hoiu'ly more cultivated reason, so is mankind redeemable to republicanism 
through civiUzation, in no matter how many ages to come. The principle is the only 
correct one because it is the principle of Life — heavenly ordained, blissf^il, and 
eternal. 



45 

" close, concludes peace then only when by it the unrepublican war- 
" like power of France is forever broken, as of no use whatever to 
"civilization. Germany receives back Alsace and Lorraine, and a 
" state of affairs is created which shall entrust Germany alone with 
" the leadership over the great family of European nations, and the 
" guardianship over European civilization." 

As the aforesaid are the sentiments of laboring men in German Aus- 
tria, sentiments thoroughly honest, it becomes a matter of cer- 
tainty that fourteen millions Germans shall ere long be added to the 
great collective Union of Germany, nor would it be just and equita- 
ble not to recover the German Eussians and old Germanic Holland, 
which Germany reveres of old, and which is essentially necessary to 
a united race and fatherland. If the King of Prussia can lay down 
his crown upon the German fatherland, the King of Holland can, 
and others, as the Kings of Bavaria, of Saxony, of Hanover and of 
Wurtemberg have done. In regard to England, the greater the 
power of Germany the greater the friendship of Great Britain, as iden- 
tical with progress, and her best security for India in future ; besides 
Queen Victoria's daughter will be Empress of Germany as long as 
Emperors are at all necessary for guiding an enlightened nation, which 
is rapidly advancing in fitness to guide and govern itself. France — 
a republic, England is no longer forced to add her strength to the 
maintenance of peace in Europe. She is now ready to follow Amer- 
ica in the enjoyment of the colossal material advantages accruing 
to her vast domain all over the world from the blessings of jperma- 
nent peace. Europe begins fully to comprehend the principle of the 
republican form of government, as exemplified in the United States 
of America, a cosmopolitan nation, where peace is lawfully abided 
in under all international circumstances occurring; although, with two 
hundred and eighty millions Europeans, instead of forty millions in 
the United States, and numerous war-like aggressive neighboring- 
nations to contend with, and at a few day's notice, instead of none at 
all, and isolated withal, it may yet take ages in Europe to achieve 
what the United States have already enjoyed vs^ith perfect impunity 
nearly a century. A^d as to Europe so soon disarming previously to 
a far more universal state of enlightenment in the million, than exists 
after all this day, such a blessing to the people's prosperity can unfor- 
tunately, as yet, but be implored. 

The most annoying of all circumstances to Napoleon, had been that 
he was necessitated to withdraw his troops from Rome, because in a 
war with Germany he could not spare their number. 

By this step he offended the priests, without whom, he could not 
do much, and whom he expected should at this particularly critical 
moment be his most valuable allies. 



46 

When these reflections are recapitulated, none of which arguing suc- 
cess, and Napoleon is, nevertheless, known to have declared war, it 
becomes evident that he relied, for reasons of his own whether ornot, 
upon victory, and that he fancied the French army superior to the 
Prussian in the same proportion as the Prussian army had proven 
itself superior to the Austrian. Again, it is owing to his incompetent 
military agents in Germany, who have thus served him scandalously. 
Colonel Stoffel explained to him from Berlin, that the Prussian inno- 
vations upon military organizations were disadvantageous, therefore 
advantageous to France. Thus, Napoleon anticij)ated the whole war 
to become a delightful military promenade to Berlin and beyond, 
halting at Konigsberg, where peace would be declared. Connected 
with these illusions rose the hope that, after the first victory should 
have been obtained the South German States would desert Prussia, 
the newly annexed provinces of Prussia would rebel and revolt, and 
Denmark and Austria, encouraged by the success of the French arms, 
appear on the scene of action as aiding participants. 

Buoying himself up with this hope, Napoleon now framed his 
famous declaration of war to Prussia, which arrived in Berlin on the 
19th of July, and reads as follows: 

" The undersigned Chorq-e d' A f aires of France, in execution of the 
' ' command received from his Government, has the honor of commu- 
" nicating to His Excellency the Minister of Foreign Affairs of His 
" Majesty, the King of Prussia, that the Government of His Majesty, 
" the Emperor of the French, in viewing the plan of placing a 
" Prussian Prince upon the throne of Sj)ain as hazardous to the ter- 
" ritorial security of France, has been necessitated to demand of His 
" Majesty, the King of Prussia, the assurance that such a combination 
" should not be realized with his consent. As His Majesty, the King 
" of Prussia has refused to extend this assiirance, and moreover, has 
" given the Charge d' Affaires of His Majesty, the Emperor of the French, 
" to understand that, he would act in this case, as well as in any 
" other similar emergency, according to circumstances possibly arising 
" and influencing his decision, the Imperial Government of France 
" cannot but suspect from the declaration of the King of Prussia that it 
" covers a design hostile to France as well as jeopardizing the balance 
" of power in Europe. The aforesaid declaration has even been 
"aggravated by the announcement to the various Cabinets of the 
' ' refusal to receive the Charge d' Affaires of the Emperor and to 
" further animadvert upon the question. 

" In consequence of which, the French Government considers it a 
" duty, broaching no delaj^ in its execution of defending its honor 
" and of guarding its injured interests, and is determined for this 
" pm-pose to avail itself of all strenuous measures demanded by the 



47 

*' situation. It therefore declares itself from this day at war with 
" Prussia. 

" The undersigned has the honor of assuring His Excellency of 
" his highest esteem and regard." 

(Signed) LE SOURD. 

Berlin, July 19, 1870. 

Before commenting upon the declaration of war and the conse- 
quence arising therefrom, it becomes necessary to refer to that episode 
when first the Times brought to light Napoleon's policy, to which 
Count Bismarck responded, and then what interesting developments 
the case divulged. A synopsis of the French and Grerman army 
organization is likewise necessary in order to portray correctly and 
vividly the events which followed. 

The moral defeat which the Parisian Cabinet had sustained by the 
publication of the projected treaty with Prussia had been too great, 
and the impression it had made upon neutral powers too extraordi- 
nary as that France should not have made every imaginable effort of 
placing the matter in a different light. In order to bring this about 
the following letter of Count Benedetti to the Minister of Foreign 
Affairs was published in the Journal Official: 

"Paeis, July 29th, 1870. 
"Duke: — No matter how unjust may have been the criticisms to 
" which I saw myself exposed, when it became known in France 
"that the Prince of Hohenzollern had accepted the Spanish Crown, 
" I have not deemed it fit and proper to confront them. My duty 
'* commanded me to leave the trouble to the Imperial Grovernment of 
" setting those criticisms right. I cannot, however, indulge in that 
" same silence considering the use which Count Bismarck has made, 
"of a document to which he endeavors to attach an importance 
" which it never had, and I entreat Your Excellency to explain every 
" solitary fact with minute precision. It is well known everywhere 
" that Count Bismarck before and during the last Prussian war with 
" Austria, had been found willing of assisting France in annexing 
" Belgium, if France returned the civility to Prussia by allowing her a 
" similar compensation in the direction of territories coveted by 
" Prussia, which since then have been acquired. The whole European 
" diplomatic body could bear witness, as every member became cog- 
" nizant of it. The Impei'ial Government has constantly refused 
" these offers, and one of its predecessors. Monsieur Drouyn de 
" I'Huys, is in a position to explain it, and in a maimer that can leave 
"no doubt. When peace had been concluded at Prague, and con- 
" sidering the excitement which prevailed in France consequent upon 
"the annexation of Hanover, Kurhessen, and the city of Frankfort- 



48 

" on-tlie-Maiu, by Prussia, Count Bismarck again expressed his great 
" desire of amending the balance of power thus gently shaken by his 
" acquisitions. Different combinations they were, to be sure, not 
" concerning lands bordering upon the frontiers of either France or 
" Germany, whicli had become the topic of several interviews, in all 
" of which Count Bismarck endeavored to obtain jjreference for his 
" personal ideas. To one of these interviews I consented, in order to 
" be better able to comprehend his combinations thoroughly, and 
" copied, so to say, what he dictated. The form as well as the con- 
" tents of that manuserij)t proves plainly that it has been my purpose 
" to confine myself to sketching the project as it had been conceived 
" and developed itself. Count von Bismarck retained it, wishing to 
" transmit it to the King. I, on my part, immediately communicated 
" the contents, precisely and correctly as they were given to me, to 
" the Imperial Government. 

" The Emperor refused these schemes immediately. I must say 
" that even the King of Prussia did not approve of their basis, so that 
" ever since, viz., during the last four years, I have not compared notes 
" and exchanged ideas with Bismarck upon the topic above mentioned. 
"Had the initiative to any such agreement been taken by the Im- 
"perial Government, the co-pj of the manuscript would have been 
" retained by the Ministry, so that I would have been unable to pro- 
" duce a copy written by myself. Besides which, it would have been 
" revised, and would have aflbrded an opportunity of entering into 
" negotiations upon the subject, which would have been carried on 
" simultaneously in Paris and in Berlin. In such an event, you may 
" rely upon it. Count Bismarck would not have been satisfied with 
" publishing its contents in an indirect way, especially at a moment 
" when yoioi- Excellency set to rights other errors, which were inten- 
" tionally circulated — by inserting the dispatches in the Journal Ojffi- 
" cial. But to attain to his end, viz., to mislead public oj^inion, and 
"to be ahead of any little indiscretion which we might have been 
" unwise enough to commit, he availed himself of this aid, because, by 
*' so doing, he rid himself of the necessity of minutely quoting at what 
" precise time, under what circumstances, and in what manner this 
" important document had originally been composed. He undoubt- 
" edly thought such silence would lead to premises which would 
" exonerate him, and compromise the Imjjerial Government of France 
" instead. 

" Such a proceeding need not be further commented* upon ; suffice 
" it to publish it, and all Europe will be able to decide. 
"Accept the assurance, etc., etc., 

"V. BENEDETTI." 



49 

The Parisian journals have exposed the flatness and shallowness of 
the aforesaid epistle, and emphatically avowed the absurdity of the sup- 
position that Count Bismarck should have retained the manuscript for 
the purpose of handing it over to the King, after it had just before 
been said, and clearly demonstrated, that the manuscript contained 
the full expression of the ideas of Count von Bismarck. Had that 
been the case, of what use would have been the manuscript? Why ! 
all Count Bismarck had to do was to verbally communicate to the 
King his ideas, which certainly would have been done more impres- 
sively than with a document composed by the French Ambassador. 

To an equal certainty the Parisians comprehended from Benedetti's 
letter the inadequateness of the rejection of the accusation, so that 
shortly afterwards a circular appeared of the Duke of Grrammont's to 
the French diplomatic body abroad, which was intended to serve as an 
answer to the accusations of Count Bismarck in his last circular, and 
neutralize its effect. The French circular said : 

Paeis, the 3d August, 1870. 
Y. Exc. : We have, this day, become acquainted with the fur- 
ther meaning of the telegram which Count Bismarck has transmitted 
to the Prussian Ambassador in London, in order to communicate to 
England those supposed secrets, of which the Chancellor of the North 
German Union professes to be aware. His dispatch, however, contains 
no additional and essentially important information beyond the facts 
which he has already brought to light. We, ourselves, find only some 
more improbabilities. Public opinion has already pronounced judg- 
ment upon these assertions, which do not gain authority by the bold- 
ness with which they are repeated. We consider it as finally settled, 
in spite of all denial, that the Emperor Napoleon never proposed to 
Prussia a treaty- which had for its purpose the forcible annexation of 
Belgium. This idea belongs exclusively to Bismarck, and intended 
to serve him as one of the means with which to manage his unscrupu- 
lous policy, which, however, is now as we hope fast approaching its 
frustration. I would have altogether refrained from reciting assertions, 
the wrongfulness of which stands to-day manifested, if the author of 
the Prussian dispatch, with a want of tact which has no precedent to 
my knowledge in any diplomatic document, had not cited relatives of 
the Emperor as having been the bearers of such compromising commu- 
nications and messages. With what a disgust I feel necessitated to 
follow and keep an eye upon the Prussian Chancellor, and pursue a 
course contrary to my habits, I cannot tell; yet, I must overcome this 
feeling, because it is my duty to defend the members of the Imperial 
family against the horrid insinuations which are meant for them, and 
evidently directed to reach the Emperor himself. 
5 



50 

It was at Berlin where Count Bismarck, taking hold of the initiation 
of the. ideas, the first conception of which he to-day dexterously 
ascribes to us, accosted the French Prince, whom he now draws 
with contempt of all conventional rules into the circle of his polemic, 
with these words: You searched for "a thing impossible. You 
" want to take the provinces of the Khine, which are German. Why 
" do you not rather anna's Belgium ? made up of people partially of 
" your own race, who profess the same religion, and who speak the 
" same vernacular. The same thing I have already given the Emperor 
" to understand : that if he should share my views, we would aid 
" him to take Belgium. As far as I am concerned, if I was master 
" here, and not hindered by the stubbornness of the King, it would 
" have been done by this time." These words of the Prussian Chan- 
cellor were, so to say, repeated vei'batim by Count 'von der Goltz, at 
the French Court. This very Ambassador made it so little a secret 
there that the number of witnesses who have heard it is considerable. 
I have to add that, at the time of the great exhibition, these propositions 
from Prussia reached the ears of a somewhat more than exalted per- 
sonage who took a precise notice of it, and even now remembers it 
well. Besides it was with Count Bismarck no effervescent whim; on 
the contrary, a well meditated project which he fostered with his am- 
bitious plans, and in which he persevered with a pertinacity which 
augured realization until it was wrecked upon the unshakable will of 
the Emperor, whom he often visited in Paris, as well as in Biarritz and 
other places for that very purpose, but who declined to participate in a 
policy which was unworthy of Napoleon's loyalty. 

I now quit this topic, which I have touched upon for the last time, 
being determined not to return to it any more, and approach a really 
new one, found in the dispatch of Count von Bismarck : "I have 
" reason to believe (so he says) that, if the treaty had not been made 
" public, France would have made us the offer after we had both 
" armed, to execute her propositions previously made, as we had now 
" together a well equipped army of more than a million of men, 
•' against unarmed Europe, by which Bismarck intended to convey: 
" to grant peace before or after the first battle, according to the pro- 
" posals of Mr. Benedetti, and of course at the expense of Belgium." 
It would not be proper for the Government of the Emperor to suf- 
fer to consider such an assurance. In the face of Europe the Minis- 
ters of His I. Majesty demanded of Count Bismarck to produce a solitary 
proof from which it might be inferred they had shown an intention, 
either directly or indirectly, officially, or with aid of secret agents, to 
unite with Prussia for the j)urpose of committing an attentat upon the 
independance of Belgium similar to the one that has been enacted 
upon Hanover. We have not negotiated with Count von Bismarck 



51 

either in regard to Belgium nor in regard to anything else. Far 
from seeking war, of which we stand accused, we -. have even 
requested Lord Clarendon to intervene with the Prussian Minister, 
in order to bring about a reciprocated disarmament, which important 
mission Lord Clarendon unhesitatingly undertook, out of friendship 
to France, as well as out of devotion to the ideas of peace. 

But the following letter will prove to a fault that the ire of the 
French arose from the designs of their intervention, in 1866, having being 
frustrated by the victories of Sadowa and Konigsgratz, as France had 
but one motive by that intervention, if possibly to participate in the 
spoils without having done anything in the way of help of action. Of 
course, Grermany never listened to it, and Bismarck j)aid nothing in 
the way of inches of territory. 

Drouyn de I'Huys wrote to the Prussian Ambassador in Paris, 
Count V. d. Goltz : 

Vichy, 3d August, 1866. 

My Dear Ambassadob : I hasten to answer your letter of the day 
before yesterday, in regard to the wish of Count von Bismarck, that 
we (France) officially acknowledge the annexations which Prussia 
intends to make in Northern Germany. 

As often as I have touched, in my conversations with you, upon 
this question of territorial modifications in favor of Prussia, I have 
expressed to you my confidence in the Berlin Cabinet, acknowl- 
edging the ;^ropriety and equity of France of asking a recompensation 
for it in a manner which shall have for its purpose the somewhat com- 
parative increase of the defensive strength of the French Empire. 

Of this sort of condition I reminded Count Benedetti, on the twenty- 
third of July, in a dis^Dateh approved of by the Emperor. It was by 
him confidentially communicated to Count Bismarck, who acknowl- 
edging the pardonable nature of the principle, exchanged with him 
some ideas in regard to the manner and metins by which the concep- 
tion might be practically realized. 

Said conversation, of which Count Bismarck told me in his letter of 
the twenty-sixth of July, preceded the signing of the prelimxinaries of 
peace, and of the armistice. It should be taken iip again later. On 
the twenty-ninth, by telegram, in my answer to his letter, ajDproved 
of by the Emperor, I have precisely stated our views. Our Ambassa- 
dor must have received the telegram either at Mckolsburg or in 
Berlin. 

As you, my dear Count, refer in your letter to the conversations 
which you have had with the Emperor upon the subject, I have handed 
the letter to his Majesty, and requested his commands. Here is the 
answer which I am authorized to give you : 



52 

' ' When the Emperor offered his good services because of the recon- 

" struction of peace, he did not hesitate to acknowledge that Prussia, 
" by her victories, had a right to ask of Austria a territorial extension 
•' of her boundaries, to the figure of three to four millions of inhabit- 
" ants upon it. If otherwise, the Emperor would not mistake that 
" an undue enlargement would derange the equlibrium of strength 
" upon our boundary. 

" But His Majesty would not increase the difficulty of an aft'air which 
" was of a general European magnitude, by treating beforehand with 
" Prussia upon territorial questions which concern France particularly, 
" besides were not mentioned in the preliminaries of peace. 

" It appeared to his Majesty as enough to have alluded to this ques- 
" tion, reserving to himself an examination of the same in unison with 
" the Cabinet of Berlin, as soon as the role he had played as inter- 
" veutor should have been finished. 



" With these views upon the subject, the Emperor commanded me 
" to instruct Count Benedetti as mentioned." 

As soon as we shall have received his reply, I shall be enabled to 
inform you. my dear Count, of the decision of the Emperor in regard 
to the points comprising the contents of your letter. 

D. DE l'H. 

The manner in which these sly importunities of France were an- 
swered in Berlin, the diplomatic archives published last year have 
shown. It is certain that both Germany and France distrusted each 
other from those dates of Sadowa and Konigsgratz. It was nothing 
more nor less than a grudge. 

It is well the heart is relieved, the pachy dermal fury evaporated, 
and calm reason prevails. 

Here follow the words which Count Daru, in a letter of the first of 
February, expressed to the Marquis of Lavalette, French Ambassador 
in London, as being the intentions of the French Government : 

" I would assui'edly not mix myself up in this affair, nor request of 
' ' England to meddle with it, if it was merely and simply a banale and 
" formal controvers}^, having no other purpose, than to afford Count 
"Bismarck an opportunity of renewing his expression of a refusal. 
" But it requires a firm, earnest, and positive action. The Secretary 
' ' of State appears to predict that Count von Bismarck will experience 
" a sensation of discontent and annoyance. It is possible, but not 
" certain. In this expectation, however,, it is perhaps well to so 
" arrange matters that a negative answer is thereto at once avoided. I 
' ' am convinced that reflection and time will bring the Chancellor to 
" seriously contemplate the step England has taken; if he has n^t 



53 

" the first day refused explanation, then the interests of Prussia and 
" Germany will soon loudly demand of him to relent. He will not 
" arouse public opinion of the whole country against him. What, 
" indeed, would be his position if we took away from him the sole 

"pretext behind which he could possibly barricade himself, viz., the 
' ' arming of France ?" 

Upon this Count Bismarck answered he could not well do it and 
lay before the King the communication from the British Government, 
being sufficiently informed of the views of his Sovereign, as not to be 
able to anticipate the impression such communication would certainly 
make upon him. King William, he said, would observe in a step of 
that sort from the British Cabinet, a proof of a change in the friendly 
sentiments of England towards Prussia. Fiilally, the Chancellor 
recapitulated his explanation : "It would be impossible for Prussia 
"to modify a military system which was firmly interwoven with the 
" traditions of the country, formed a part of the basis of its consti- 
"tution and was totally normal." Count Daru was not discomfited 
by this first response. On the 13th of February he wrote to Mr. von 
Lavalette: " I hope Lord Clarendon does not consider himself van- 
" quished, and will lose his presence of mind. We shall very soon 
' ' afford him another opportitnity to return to the same attack when- 
' ' ever he shall see fit to reopen the discourse upon the same topic 
" with the German Chancellor, which has thus been interrupted. 
" Our intention really is to diminish our contingent; we would have 
" diminished it much more if we had received from the Chancellor of 
"the North German Union a favorable answer; we shall now dimin- 
" ish it less, because his answer was negative; nevertheless, we do 
" diminish it, and the reduction I hope will amount to 10,000 men, 
" each contingent; this number I shall propose. In this manner we 
" shall attest our j^olicy and intention by action, which are always 
" worth more than words. Nine contingents diminished, each of 
" 10,000 men, make a total of 90,000 men. That is something — a 
" tenth of the army; I regret only that I cannot do more. The law in 
" regard to the contingent shall soon be presented; Lord Clarendon 
" may then judge whether it is time to remonstrate with Count Bis- 
' ' marck, that it is the Prussian Government alone in Europe which 
" does not make concession in favor of peace, and that it puts itself 
" in a critical position among the nations of Europe, because it lends 
" arms to all tbe world against itself, even against the people thus 

' oppressed by military taxes as necessarily levied upon them. 

Lively pressed, Count Bismarck considered it necessary to give 

Lord Clarendon nevi explanations. These were full of reticencies as 

transmitted to us by letter from Mr. von Lavalette, dated February 

23d. The Chancellor of the North German Union had returned to 



54 

his first resolution, and had had a conversation with King William 
upon the jn'oposal as recommended by England. The King, however, 
had declined. Count Bismark based this refusal upon the apprehen- 
sion of a possible French alliance between Austria and South Ger- 
many, and the inclination which France might evince in enlarging 
her boundary. Above all, he clouded his argument into the anxiety 
which the policy of Russia gave him, and upon this occasion made 
some pointed remarks in regard to the Court of St. Petersburg, which 
were incomprehensible to me. 

These are the grounds upon which Count Bismarck based his non- 
compliance with the request of the French Imperial Government, as 
transmitted through Lord Clarendon, and duly represented as a loN^al 
and conscientious mfftter. 

If, therefore, Euroj)e remained under arm when a million of men 
were about to wound each other upon battle-fields, then it is not any 
longer permissible to deny that Prussia is responsible for such a con- 
dition of things ; she has rejected every thought in regard to disai-ma- 
ment when we have had the proposition made, and commenced by 
giving an example. Is not, moreover, this behavior explainable 
from the fact that in the same hour in which France diminished her 
contingent, the Prussian Cabinet organized in the dark the provoking 
candidature of a Prussian Prince for the Spanish Throne ? No mat- 
ter what calumnies the Chancellor of the North German Union may 
have invented, we are without fear. He has lost the right to find 
credence. The conscience of Europe and history shall say that Prus- 
sia provoked the present war by aiming an insult at France, while the 
latter was busy perfecting its political improvements, which affront 
no proud and courageous nation could have stood without deserving 
execration from all the world. 

With assurances of high regard, etc., etc., 

(Signed) GP.AMMONT. 

Even the aforesaid circular was not sufficient to allay the distrust 
once aroused among the European Courts, as it contained nothing 
new beyond what Benedetti had already advanced by stating, without 
proofs, that Count Bismarck had been the originator of the project 
which the Emperor of the French had perseveringly rejected. The 
most interesting part of the document is, however, the manner in 
which developments, as systematically arranged b}" Count Bismarck, 
were made to connect with the candidature of the Prince of Hohen- 
zoUern for the throne of Spain, its conception likewise ascribed to him 
and which fusion had to serve France to get as a jjretext for the inaug- 
uration of the present war. By this artful device the Duke of Gram- 
mont is lucky enough to put down Count Bismarck as the abomina- 



55 

ble originator of the war, and place France near him as the innocent 
lamb which had to go against its will, that civilization might be saved 
and the disturbed balance of power in Europe readjusted. It cannot 
be denied, though, that the following document, which had appeared 
not long before the one just given, and serving as an introductory to 
the same, has been executed with so much dramatic skill, that it is not 
to be wondered at that in the eyes of Frenchmen, who love and 
admire, above everything, a good theatrical effect, it appeared as an 
expression of the most verified truth. This document reads as fol- 
lows: • 

Paris, 21 July, 1870. 

Gentlemen: — ¥ou are already aware of the entanglement of facts 
which have brought about the breach of peace with Prussia. The 
announcement which the Government of the Emperor had, on the 
15th inst., issued forth from the tribunal of the corporation of great 
nations, the exact contents of it I have duly communicated to you, 
has explained to France and Europe the quick changes wrought in 
a negotiation which had for its x^urpose the preservation of peace, 
during the management of which the secret plans of an adversary, 
determined to contract our exertions in behalf of peace, developed 
themselves, and at the same ratio at which we redoubled our efforts 
of securing it. 

Be it that the Berlin Cabinet considered war necessary in order to 
be enabled of carrying out its old plans against the independence of 
the German States, be it that the Berlin Cabinet was not content 
with possessing, in the very heart of Europe, a military power which 
had already become extremely formidable to its neighbors, and 
was anxious of making use of that power, self-evidently for the 
purpose of deranging the international balance of power in Europe, 
at any rate the well defined intention to refuse a positively necessary 
guarantee for our security as well as our honor, clearly shows itself 
throughout its demeanor. 

The following was undoubtedly the plan ]3rojected against us: Ac- 
cording to an agreement made with non-responsible persons, it should 
have carried the result of the measure directly to the spot, where the 
Cortes were to be suddenly made acquainted with the candidature of 
the Prussian Prince. A vote thus attained by surprise and forestall- 
ing the mature deliberation of the Spanish people upon so important 
an event, should then — ■ such was the hope — unanimously pro- 
claim Prince Leopold von Hohenzollern the Heir to the Scepter of 
Charles V. 

" In this manner Europe would have found itself confronted by an 
' ' accomplished fact, while it indulged in speculations upon our con- 
" stant readiness to advance the grand principle of the sovereignty of 



56 

" peoples. Therefore, Eprope expected that France would stand 
" firmly by that principle in spite of her transient anger, when brought 
" opposite the expression of a nation apparently real, for whom all 
" the world is aware of our sympathies. 

" As soon as it had been informed of the danger, this Government 
" did not hesitate to inform the agents of the country, as well as all 
" the European Cabinets, of it; to then counteract the manoeuvre, we 
" were assisted in by public opinion, which became the legitimate ally 
" of the Government. The impartial minds have nowhere been dis- 
" appointed in regard to the real state of things, these quickly compre- 
" bended that if it touched us painfully to see Spain assigned to play- 
" ing a role in the exclusive interest of an ambitious dynasty, not at 
" all suitable to the loyalty of that chivalrous people, besides did so 
"little accord with the promptings and transfer of friendship which 
"binds Spain to us, we could not be expected to dissemble our 
" constant esteem for the independence of her national decisions. 

' ' One has felt it that the but little scrupulous policy of the Prus- 
" sian Government played here its part. That Government is it in 
" reality, which, not considering itself bound by common right and 
" regard of the rules, to which the wisest powers have possessed the 
" wisdom of bowing, has attempted to burden a deceived Europe with 
" so dangerous an extension of its influence. France, however, has 
" taken the case of the balance of power in hand, viz: The case of 
" all nations which are jeopardized by a disproportioned enlargement 
" of some kingly house. 

"Every nation, we take a pleasure in so saying, is mistress of its 
" own destiny. This principle, which France has openly acknowl- 
" edged, has become one of the main laws of modern politics. But 
" the right of each nation, exactly the same as the right of every in- 
" dividual, is kept in check by the right of another, and it is forbid- 
" den to a nation, under pretext of exercising its own right of sover- 
' ' eignty , to endanger the existence or the security of a neighboring 
"one. In this sense spoke one of our great orators, Mr. von Lam- 
" artine, in 1847: that the moment the question comprised the election 
"of a sovereign, a government had never the right to demonstrate 
" demands, but it had the right to remonstrate them. This doctrine 
" is under circumstances adhered to by all cabinets, and is analogous 
' ' to the one in which the candidature of the Prince of Hohenzollern 
" has put us, and particularly to the one of the year 1831, to the one 
" in the Belgian question of 1830 and in the Greek question of 1862. 
" In the Belgian question the voice of all Europe was heard. The 
" five great powers decided. The three Courts which took the Greek 
"question in hand were unanimous among themselves, being guided 



57 

" by interests which they had in common with each other, not to 
" accept the throne of Greece for one of their princes. 

" The Cabinets of Paris, London, Vienna, Berlin and St. Peters- 
" burg, all of which were rejjresented at the London Conference, 
" made an example of it; they set it down as a rule, when negotiating 
" on questions affecting the peace of the world. They did homage — 
"so solemnly — to this great law for the equilibrium of strength, as 
' ' forming the basis of the European political system . Li vain the 
" Belgian National Congress insisted, in spite of this agreement, to 
" elect the Duke of Nemours; France adhered to its obligation and 
" rejected the crown, which the Belgian delegates had brought to 
" Paris. But France insisted in a like manner that the candidature 
" of the Duke of Leuchtenberg should similarly not be accej)ted. 
" Likewise in Greece, the Government of France prevented the can- 
" didature of Prince Alfred of England, and of another candidate, 
' ' the Duke of Leuchtenberg. 

"England, acknowledging the weight of our proposition, declared 
" at Athens that the Queen had forbidden her son to accept the Crown 
" of Greece. Eussia declared similarly in regard to the Duke of 
'•Leuchtenberg; besides, that nobleman does not come within the 
" pedigree of the Imperial family. Finally, and voluntarily, the 
" Emperor Napoleon declared his adhesion to these principles, and 
" published a note, on the first of September, 1860, in the Moniteur, 
" in which he refused the candidature of Prince Murat for the throne 
" of Naples. Prussia, which we had not omitted of reminding of 
" these precedents, appeared for a moment to yield to our represen- 
" tation ; Prince Leopold declined the candidature ; one was flattered 
" that peace would not be disturbed. But this hope soon waned. 
"New anxieties arose, which increased to a certainty, that Prussia, 
" without seriously withdrawing her pretensions, contemplated to 
" gain time. The language upon the subject, as made use of hj the 
" head of the family of Hohenzollern — first evasive, then decisive and 
" haughty — his refusal to adhere to the same avowed non-acceptance 
"in future, the treatment of our Charge cV Affaires , who had 'been 
" denied further audiences, disabling him from amicably arrang- 
" ing this case as instructed, finally the publicity to which these 
" extraordinary preliminaries were exposed to in the Prussian news- 
" papers, and which had been given of the same to the various Cabi- 
" nets — all these consecutive symptoms of hostile plans could not but 
" put aside every doubt in minds the most partially inclined. Is there 
" a mistake possible, when a Sovereign, who can dispose of over a mil- 
" lion of soldiers, and putting his hand upon his sword, declares he 
" will reserve to himself his decision, and be guided by circumstances 
' ' only ? We have about arrived at the utmost point, where a nation 
6 



58 

" whicli feels wliat it owes to itself does not further negotiate for 
" demands upon its own honor. If these last named i)roofs in this 
" woeful controversy do not throw a sufficient light upon the matured 
" plans of the Berlin Cabinet, a circumstance will certainly do it, which 
" is far less known, but which, nevertheless, stamps those plans as 
" real and decisive. 

" The fact is, the thought to put a prince of Hohenzollern upon the 
"throne of Spain was not a new one. Already, in March, 1869, we 
' ' had been given to understand, by our Charge d' Affaires at Berlin, that 
" such a thought existed. We authorized him to explain to Count 
" Bismarck how we, the Imperial Government, would view such 
" eventuality. Count Benedetti had made it known in several conver- 
" sations which he had upon the subject with the Chancellor of the 
" North Grennan Union, as well as with the Under Secretary of State, 
' ' that we could not permit it that a Prussian prince should succeed in 
" reigning on the other side of the Pyrenees. 

" Count Bismarck on his part declared that we had it not necessary 
" to busy ourselves with a combination Avhich he himself considered 
' ' inexecutable ; and later, at a time when the Chancellor haj^pened to be 
' ' absent, and Count Benedetti thought it a good moment to express 
" himself unbelievingly and pressingly, Mr. Von Thiele had given his 
" word of honor that the Prince of Hohenzollern was not in earnest a 
" candidate for the Spanish throne, nor could he become one. 

" If one should draw into doubt the veracity and truthfulness of 
' ' such explicit official assurances, all diplomatic intercourse would 
" cease to be the pledge of European peace, and be nothing but a 
" snare and a danger. As soon as our Charge d'Affaiy^es communi- 
" cated those declarations to us without reserve, the Imj^erial Gov- 
" ernment considered itself as notified to interpret the same favorably. 
" It has been constrained to draw into doubt the good belief of this 
" assurance up to the moment when this combination suddenly 
" revealed itself, which evidently is the contrary to the same. Unex- 
" pectedly retiring from the word given to us, without even the at- 
" tempt to release herself from an obligation, Prussia has prepared for 
" us a real disappointment. Informed of the value which the most 
' ' formal assurances of Prussian statesmen possess, we considered it a 
" peremptory duty in future incumbent upon us, of asking a guarantee 
" for our honesty, which should secure us against a new attemj)t of 
" disrespect. We therefore were obliged to do as we have done, viz., 
" to insist upon receiving a security which should be definitive and 
" earnest, and not full of reserves, as the former. 

" It is evident that the Com-t of Berlin bears the responsibility for 
" the war from a time previous to the combination, while it had all 



59 

" the means at its disposal of avoiding it, but insisted upon having. 
' ' And under what circumstances has it sought the strife ? 

" After France had, during four years, given proofs of an unalter- 
" able moderation, — after she had abstained with an anxiety perhaps 
" carried too far from reminding the Prussian Government of the 
" treaties which had been made by intervention of the Emperor, the 
" international disregard discernible in all the acts of said G-overn- 
" ment clearly demonstrates that it already intended to rid itself of the 
' ' same when it signed the contract. 

" Europe bears witness to our conduct, and has had time to com- 
*' pare that of Prussia. To-day it may pronounce its veto on the jus- 
" tice of our cause. Whatever may be the fate of battles, we expect, 
" without disquietude, the judgment of contemporaries, as well as that 
" of the future. 

" Pray accept the assurance of, etc., etc., 

"GRAMMONT." 

This remarkable document, the sophistry and illusive surmises as 
to consequence of the contents of which an unpreposessed mind can 
easily grasp, was vigorously reinforced by two proclamations which 
were no less noticeable, one of which was directed to the French 
people. I shall here produce and comment upon both. The procla- 
mation to the French people reads as follows : 

" There are, during the existence of a nation, solemn moments : 
when the honor of a nation, violently assailed, rises, with an irre- 
sistable might, when it commands all other interests, and manages 
alone and directly the fate of the nation. One of those decisive 
moments is the present one for France. Prussia, which we have 
«hown the most forgiving sentiments to during the war of 1866, has 
ever since taken no notice at all of our good will and forbear- 
ance. ImjDetuously pursuing its course of conquests it has given 
reasons for mistrustfulness; made everywhere excessive armaments 
necessary; transforming Europe into a military camp, in which 
apprehension prevails. 

" The glorious flag which we once more unfurl to those Avho pro- 
vokes us, is the same which has carried the civilizing ideas of our 
great revolution all over Europe ; it represents the same ideas ; it 
will inspire the same feelings of devotion. Frenchmen, I am ready 
to place myself at the head of this brave army, which is imbued 
with a keen sense of duty, and animated by its love of France; the 
army knows its own worth, for it has seen how, in four divisions of 
the globe, victory accompanied its footsteps. I take my son with 
me, notwithstanding his youthfulness he undei'stands the duties 
which his name demands of him ; he is proud of being permitted 
to share the dangers of those who fig'ht for France. A last inter- 



60 

" venmg event has been added, which bring's more fully to light the 
" changebleness of international relations, showing- the full earnest- 
" ness of the situation. Opposite the new pretensions of Prussia are 
" our reinforcements. One has despised them, followed by a testi- 
" lied contempt. Our country has been deeply incensed in conse- 
" quence, and the war-cry heard fi'om one end of France to the other. 
" Nothing- is now left to us but to let our fate be decided by force of 
" arms. We do not wage war against Germany, the independence of 
" which we respect. We have the wish that the people of whom the 
" German Union is composed may, of their own free will, decide in 
" this case. We (Ourselves require a state of things which guarantees 
" our security and our future. We want to attain to a lasting peace. 
" God will bless our exertions. A great people defending a just cause 
" are invincible. 

"NAPOLEON." 

It is interesting to observe hoAV groundless reproaches against Prus- 
sia, over-estimation of their own actions, and general egotism are 
harmoniously blended together for the jmrpose of producing a sem- 
blance of a substance, palatable to French military vanity. In regard 
to the praised forbearance of France we now find out its source : the 
hope of enlarging her territory ; the ' ' victories in four divisions of 
"the globe." It might be useful to remember that Napoleon III 
did not obtain one v/ithout allies ; as soon as he fought alone he 
did not achieve anything, which the events in Mexico have clearly 
shown, and this present war still more so. How little correct the 
assurance is that the war-cry was heard from one end of France to 
the other, is best attested by the demands for peace from Nizza and 
Bordeaux, and by the remarks from Michelet and Louis Blanc in 
newspapers. Those of Louis Blanc may serve as an example. 

He wrote to the Rappel: ". . . . Be it well understood that this 
" war to which we are driven by the martial spirit of honest minds, 
" betrayed by the martial spirit of knavish souls, is entered into on 
" the one side to make despotism stronger than liberty, and on the 
" other side to cover the lack of success of a Napoleonic dynasty and 
" adjust the damage done at the exj)ense of France. A double reason 
" to be on guard and to prevent it! The Union of Germany is, nev- 
" ertheless, a danger. I repeat, that this Union, difficult and slow 
" as it can be effected in times of peace, will instantly be consolidated 
" when the war trumpet sounds. Put Germany under threats of war, 
" one may rely on it — she will rise to a man. Don't speak any more 
" of annihilating Prussia, but reflect upon annihilating Germany. A 
"terrible shock, that of the Latin and Germanic races, a shock in 
" which we, a Latin nation, would, strange to say, have Latin nations 



61 

" arraigned against us — a shock which would sow enmities for ever, 
" and carry civilization back a century, perhaps two. That it is which 
" is demanded of France, to that she shall allow herself to be driven, 
" under the pretext that the vanity of some diplomatist is tanta- 
" mount to the dignity of the nation; and for what purpose? it is 
" barely concealed; of giving the baptismal of glory to the supposed 
" heir to the throne! Great people of France! is it possible that one 
' ' dares to count upon a harrassed mind to such an extent ? dares to 
" ensnare your bravery to such a degree ?" 

The language of many others in tlie newspapers conveys pretty much 
the same meaning, as the words of Louis Blanc, demanding peace in 
the most determined manner, and shows the power of republicanism. 

Finally, the reproaches against Prussia of her desire for conquest, 
her insatiable ambition, etc., etc., those are as old and unfounded as 
they are unproved, and if she is particularly reproached because of 
having lately enlarged her territoiy, it is not to be forgotten that 
Prussia was menaced in her very existence, during the war with Aus- 
tria, by the hostility of Hanover and other States, and the artful 
devises of jealous adversaries, among whom France was by no means 
the smallest one. Besides, Prussia had been previously put at the 
Congress of 1815, in a position, the natural condition and doubtful- 
ness of which, was such as to sooner or later predict a rupture or a 
radical change in the destiny of Prussia, lest she should have had to 
rue complete annihilation. 

Herein consisted the impetus, germinating the power, ivhich, since 1815 
has produced all these events, and which is not to be attributed to vainglo- 
rious ambition, or a desire for conquest, which the world has been made 
to fancifully believe as having alone actuated the policy of Prussia, but 
to self-preservation through self-defense and the true belief in God and 
themselves. 

The second document commences with the same words as the first, 
so that it might be inferred it has had the same author, it is by no 
means less noticeable than the first, and reads as follows: 

" There are during the existence of a nation solemn moments when 
" God afi^ords thern an opportunity of showing who they are, and 
"what they can do. One of those moments has come for France ! 
" One has often had the opinion that the great nation, so resolute in 
" attack, did not well know how to bear misfortune. What now 
" developes itself before our eyes resents the calumny with falsity. 
" The bearing of the population shows no discouragement; on the con- 
" trary, a patriotic fierceness towards the aggressors of France, who 
" shall here find their graves. All Frenchmen shall rise to a man. They 
" will remember their ancestors and think of those who shall follow. 
" Behind them centuries of glory, before them a future full of liberty 



62 

" and power, whicli their heroism shall create. Never before has 
" France shown her noble pride and the strength of ner national 
" character in such an equally great and imposing manner. Every- 
" body full of enthusiasm exclaims: To arms! to conqueror die! While 
" our soldiers heroically defend the soil of the country, FAirope is 
" justly f I dl of anxielij in rcijard to tlie siiccessef<qf P^-ysda. One does 
" not knoiv how far the ambition of ttiat insatiable jMtvcr may carry it, 
" should a final triumph make it still more presumptive. 

"It is an unchangeable law of history that every nation which dis- 
" turbs the general balance of power by its extraordinary success, is 
" awakening a reaction consequent upon those xoiy victories, and cre- 
" ates for itself ,the enmity of all other nations. It cannot fail that 
" this truth shall now again be conlifincd by facts. So especiall}' con- 
" sidered. 

" Who, then, after all, is i7iterested in a reconstruction of a German 
"Empire? Who, after all, can wish that the North Sea and the 
" Baltic become Prussian lakes ? Is it, perhaps, Sweden, Norioay, and 
" De^xmark, which the triumph of Prussia Avould annihilate? or is it 
" Biissia, whose interest it is, more than*any other power, to protect 
" the equilibrium of the North against the advance of a compact Ger- 
" many ? Is it, perhaps, Enj^dand, which as a great naval power and 
" protector of Denmark, is obliged to protest against further pro- 
" gress in the formation of the Prussian marine? Is it, perhaps, Hol- 
" land, which has been long enough threatened by the intrigues of 
"Bismarck? 

" In regard to Austria, the reconstruction of the German Empire 
" by the house of Hohenzollern, would be the most dangerous blow 
" dealt not only to the dynasty of the Hapsburgs, but to the very 
" existence of an Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Prussia would surely 
" endeavor to make promises to the Cabinet of Yienna, but one knows 
" what belief to attach to the words of Bismarck. A proffered guaran- 
" tee, of whatever nature, could never be stronger than the ties which 
" have bound Piiissia to the former German Union, and, notwith- 
" standing which, Prussia, unmindful of her obligations, has rented in 
" such a violent juanner. A definitive triumph of the house of Hohen- 
" zolleru would be for Italy no less deplorable than for Austria. A 
" German Empire would seek to provide for itself, at all costs, 
" countries bordering upon the sea, as well in the South as in the 
" North. It would covet possession of Venice, Triest, as vv-ell as Am- 
" sterdam. Thus, the regeneration of Italy Avould be in danger, as 
" well as Austria and Holland. 

' ' We appeal to the Governments and the nations of Europe to tear 
" Europe off the grasp of Piussian despotism, in order that they 
" may be able to assist us, by alliances and sympathies, to protect the 



63 

" European balance of power. In England, Denmark, and Sweden 
" there are already signs of such a turn. Austria and Italy have com- 
" menced to arm. Our patriotism is proof against all dangers. The 
" more seriously the circumstances, the greater the energy the nation 
" shall display." 

That what especially rivets the attention of the aforesaid document 
is not the jmssus, which places Prussia as an insatiably ambitious 
power in Eurojoe, which should be fully feared, and which accusation 
serves but as a somewhat modified rejoetition of what had been 
advanced in the previous document ; but the 2^<^ssus in which the ques- 
tion is put and answered — who it is that after all is interested in the 
restoration of a German Empire ? - The answer, of course, is : " nobody." 

On the contrary, all are interested that such a consolidation should 
not be realized ; in other words, that Grermany should remain weak 
and disunited as in times of yore. One has denominated this passus 
in diplomatic circles : a mendicancy of France to obtain alliances, and 
justly so ; for that is its version from the one side. But the purpose 
of it is by no means thereby exhausted. On the contrary, the more 
important and extensively versified portion of that 2^(^ssus has not 
therein even been touched. This jmssus expresses on the one side the 
apprehension of France of a change in affairs as inaugurated previ- 
ously to 1864, and which the Moniteur calls " normal," viz., predicting 
the destruction of the supremacy of France presumptively exercised 
over the European continent ever since the days of Louis XIV, and 
of the possibility of a future cessation of the supremacy of England 
in the European waters through the full development of the strength 
of Germany. The " enteinte cordicde" between France and Great 
Britain, of which so much was made, rested in its exact meaning upon 
the thoughts to strengthe» by mutual action the supremacy of both 
in Europe, for the purpose of keeping it at bay, for the execution of 
which strategy it became, however, absolutely necessary that Ger- 
many remained disunited, and consequently weak and powerless. 

This "enteinte cordiale" cooled off when Great Britain thought it 
detected other purposes on the part of I'rance, which were directed 
towards absorbing from England, at a fit opportunity, her share of 
the supremacy at sea, which thought matured in English opinion by 
France constantly strengthening her fortifications at Cherbourg, be- 
sides noticing the considerable increase of her navy, as there was no 
other nation in Europe but England against which such hostile jDre- 
parations of magnitude might be warranted to be so developed in 
embryo. The pointed hints which Napoleon III threw out with refer- 
ence to and in anticipation of a successful realization of the assiduous 
and indefatigable exertions of Prussia striving to form a German Em- 



64 

pire, should serve to stimulate the commercial ambition as well as 
awaken the suspicion of Great Britain. Of course, his purpose was 
to again attract thjjt great moral power to the modern alliance, so as 
to cosily hide his mischievous connivings before the world. How, in 
1855, so shortly after his ascension to the throne as a revenging spectre 
of his uncle, he ever succeeded in duping England to such an extent 
as to induce that stern power to completely untomb at St. Helena the 
shade of Napoleon I, in the eyes of the Holy alliance, is more than 
history will ever draw information of and fatliom from blue books. 

Similar purposes should the addresses serve, which Napoleon trans- 
mitted to the other nations of Eiirope, as mentioned in the aforesaid 
document, leaving" nothing further to remark but that those were of 
as feeble a nature as they were frivolous. He simj^ly relied on the 
feeling of awe, which pervaded all Europe, and whicli the wars of his 
uncle had bequeathed to him as a very serviceable legacy. The 
French nation forsaking in 1848, the Republic, relied upon the talis- 
man of the name Napoleon as creating a reality, expecting nothing- 
short of a repetition of a victorious run through Europe. The battle 
of Sadowa, therefore, ignited the martial spirit of the French, and 
throwing themselves upon Napoleon, forced him to the mad attempt 
of this war. It shows that the world never went beyond antecedents, 
and with Indian fierceness and ignorance failed to consider that the 
foe of barbarity, the ABC book, had been about and at work. Natu- 
rally they all have found it out by this time, that the combined war- 
like hordes of the world could not now conquer G-ermany, monarchi- 
cal though she yet is, having but lately been freed from political 
shackles, which of course prevented her of doing the re^Jublic. 

The same school-book will a£&x itself to the bravest soldier holding 
fire-arms in self-defense, as Da^dd slew Goliah, strip wars of their 
glory by the scientific process of extermination and additional moral 
courage, until all mankind shall disarm and live law-abidingly, j^eace- 
fully and happily. 

As many proofs more could be shown and defended in favor of an 
accomplishment of the endeavor to form a strong German empire, 
and that such a power could not but exercise a beneficial influence 
upon the peace and liberty of Europe. In fact, Germany owes her 
present success to her clear-headedness which delines to her the duty 
of absorbing upon civilized grounds of humanity and charitableness, 
all other strayed-off German elements, monarchical alienated, besides 
Alsace and Lorraine in due avail of her physical powers if made rea- 
sonably necessary. 

As it is this enlightened feeling which pervades her actions in this 
war, not a feudal delight to cripple her adversary, she will not dis- 
continue uniting the remainder of Germanic races at once. She has 



65 

been signally crowned with immediate success in this war, at the same 
time ridding- herself and Europe of the glare of igneous firebrands 
of war in a feudal sense. 

She will now continue in a friendly manner to first induce Austria 
and Kussia to act humanely just, and give up the Gei-mans and not 
thwart the happiness of millions of people now forlorn and alien. 

The land which said aliens at present occupy, shall by Germany be 
most liberally bought and paid for. 

Speedily accomplished either way, peaceably or by main force, she 
shall have received twofold blessings; the exquisiteness of conscience, 
of having performed her duty to the fatherland, and the impossibil- 
ity of a re-occurrence of war, especially with France, should the 
master spirit of faith be there once more overruled, and the republic 
be a third time made a sham, which republic alone places France to- 
day next to the United States of America in general importance of 
the civilization of the world, attained so far. The republic shall 
eventually intimately befriend France with Germany, if the latter 
country continues to prove its wisdom by at all times of the future 
assisting the French people in never permitting a monarch to again 
rule over France, plunge the world into agony and the French nation 
into moral and political retrogradation. 

Secondly, and especially important, is the document, because it 
expresses the leading opinions of all the European nations in regard 
to the Union of Germany, as so considered at least by France. It is 
a French opinion, from a jDarty stand-point, therefore one-sided, not- 
withstanding there is much truth in it worth noticing and to be 
reflected upon. 

Thirdly, and finally, the document points out the means of which 
Napoleon III availed himself in order to attain to his end with the 
nations he has mentioned; they consisted of suspicion, an awakening- 
distrust and general mischievous talk of results already gained, or 
to be so nearly. As a set-off to such damaging insinuations, one may 
simply remember the conduct of the European nations, as shown 
throughout this matter, in order to realize the weak ground from 
which the wrongfulness of French insinuations had been produced. 

The trouble is that France, with but thirty-six millions of popula- 
tion and no more, feels that she has far less jDopulation than a United 
Germany has, comprising the Germanic race on the continent of 
Europe sure to unite ere very long. From nowhere has a voice been 
heard which justified the proceedings of France, or sanctioned the 
motives for the war. Everywhere Napoleon's manner has been most 
severely censured, and instead of having served him as a moral assist- 
ance, as he boasts of, it has been transferred to the Germans as pro- 
Yoked to war because attacked, and has been gladly accorded and 
7 



66 

avowed by all nations, with tlie exception of the Scandinavians, equally 
troubled as Prance, for the very same reasons of a minority of popu- 
lation, compared with the Union of the Germans. 

Previously to the commencement of actual hostilities at the time 
when the G-erman Diet was about to adjourn at Berlin, Count Bis- 
marck entered and issued the following- manifest : 

' ' It has been my intention to lay before you the documents in con- 
*' secutive order, which are in the hands of the Government, and 
" refer to the origin of the dispute with Prance. I expect these doc- 
" uments every moment. Por the present I have but to explain that 
" the collection is very meagre. We have received in this whole 
" affair but o)ie official communication, and that is the declaration of 
" war [motion J. That is the only official document which has at all 
" been transmitted to us by the Prench Government. In regard to 
" it, all conversation which Count Benedetti, in his capacity as Charge 
" d'Aj/'aires, had upon the .subject with the King, privately and at the 
" Springs of Ems: — 

" Likewise all definitions which one has attempted to force in that 
" way, and which, perhaps would have been so forced if His Majesty 
" had been less manly and firm of character than he is, would always 
" have been considered personal expressions which the Monax'ch would 
" have confirmed in a dift'erent manner, if that had been his earnest 
" will. 

" After having" said this in advance, I take the liberty of throwing a 
short glance at those other documents, which were produced after the 
affair could not any longer be j)eaceably arranged, simpl}'- to explain 
to the other Governments how this case developed itself. In the 
order here given, these communications contain the particular news- 
paper telegram already known, which the Prench Ministry' consider as 
the real cause of the war, for the reason that one has attached to it 
the importance of a " note " by which the French Cabinet • fancies 
itself to have been deceived. [Hear ! Hear !] I shall not go to the 
trouble of explaining what is meant by " notes." Por all those at all 
acquainted with diplomacy it is enough to understand that ' ' newspa- 
per telegrams " cannot be qualified and become " notes." The gen- 
tlemen then have taken good care not to produce the said document, 
[Hear ! Hear !] for everything would have been considered as naught 
upon the contents of the document becoming known. The second 
and third documents are those already known through the newspa- 
pers, referring to the authenticated occui-rences at Ems. Then, 
fourthly, a dispatch from Baron v. Werther, dated Paris, twelfth July. 
That one, at least, is an official document, exchanged between Prus- 
sian authorities, and not between Prussia and Prance. In this dis- 
patch there are the contents given of a conversation which Barron v. 



67 

Werther had had with the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, and at 
the same time with the Minister of Justice, Monsieur Ollivier. In this 
dispatch we are made acquainted with the unacceptable demand of a 
letter of apology [Laughter] which the King should have to write. I 
have, hereupon, answered the Charge d'Ajf aires nothing more than 
that he could not but have misunderstood the wishes of the French 
Government, as they had appeared to me impossible. I do not con- 
sider myself justified to lay before the King — demands of that sort. 
[Bravo !] I wrote to the Representative he might ask of the French 
Government to p"at their demand in form, and to have it here offi- 
cially presented through their .Charge cV Affaires. The fifth is the cir- 
cular of the eighteenth of July, and the sixth the dispatch from 
the English Government to intervene. The seventh is the response 
of the Chancellor of the North German Union, which has not as 
yet been made known to the House. 

"Count Bismarck read the reply, from which it appears that 
although the proposition of an intervention had been gratefully 
acknowledged, and nothing would have been rejected Avhich might 
have enhanced the security for an acceptable basis of peace, yet, 
one was now no longer in a position to avail oneself of the initiative, 
after having unofficially heard that France had already declined the 
intervention of England, because such a step would be misunderstood 
by the Germans, whose national pride had been wounded by the 
threats of France. The gentlemen might rest assured that the For- 
eign Office of the North German Union had not been one moment 
remiss in advising moderation and quiet, 

' ' Upon this follows the French version of the declaration of war, 
of which the translation into German is already known, and then a 
circular to the Ambassadors of the North German Union, which ex- 
plains the causes from which originated the war, and the manner in 
which we treat the affair. [Lively applause.] The documents shall, 
after the close of this session, be immediately handed over by the 
Chancellor of the North German Union to the President of the House, 
and then published in the daily papers." 

Thereupon the session was declared closed by the President, and 
when afterwards resumed, Bismarck explained : 

Gentlemen : — The three Presidents of the Diet have been permitted 
already, shortly after noon, to transmit to the King the addresses which 
had been decided upon this forenoon. His Majesty ordered the 
addresses to be read to him, and then directed us in his name to 
express to the House his most sincere and grateful thanks; for as the 
King literally said : " The beautiful and ennobling expressions of devo- 
tion to the German Fatherland." [Here the whole house rose.] In 
this declaration so unanimously decided upon, the King recognizes 



68 

likewise a pledge for tlie final and complete success of the great 
tasks wliicli lie before liim and before us. He likewise found liis full 
confidence confirmed that the iiation would never cease to pursue 
those aforesaid tasks with unrelenting perseverance. [Lively ap- 
plause.] 

In order to more lucidly explain the declaration of the Diet, we 
may as well here produce the newspaper telegram, to which the 
Chancellor refers, and which the French Minister valued as a "note" 
and reasoned that therefrom had emanated the actual cause of the 
war. 

"After the advices of the refusal of the hereditary Prince of 
" Hohenzollern had been of&cially transmitted by the Spanish to the 
" Imperial French Government, the French Charge d' Affaires had 
" demanded of the King of Prussia, at Ems, that the King should 
" authorize him to telegraph to Paris, that he pledged himself for all 
" futui'e not to give his sanction to such an alternative of acceptance, 
" shordd a Prince of Hohenzollern again retiu-n to the candidature. 
" The King hereujjon declined to further receive the French Charge 
" d' A f aires, and had sent him word through his Aid-de-camp on duty, 
" that he had nothing further to communicate to him." 

On the 21st of July the Chancellor again adjourned the Diet, 
because in one respect the purpose for its assembling had been real- 
ized, and in the other, the Government, in consequence of the pres- 
sure of events, had nov>' to direct its attention to other more import- 
ant matters^ especially the necessary'' preparations for the war about 
to commence, the more obligatory as the time for their completion 
had been but tardily given. The most important point of all was, of 
course, the arming of the troops in the shortest possible time, which 
succeeded so happil}'^ and speedily, thanks to the admirable efiiciency 
of the army organization, that it became impossible for the French 
to surprise the Germans. 









rv rvu^ THjp^- 



THE PEOVISIONAL BATTLE-GKOUND. 



The Grerman-French Frontier is divided into two entirely distinct 
parts. From Basle in Switzerland, to Lanterbnrg, a distance of twenty- 
two and a half miles (one G-erman mile is equal to four and a quarter 
English), the Ehine forms the frontier, while the Bavarian palatinate 
of the Rhine, and the Prussian province of the Rhine commence at 
Lauterburg- to be the neighbors of France. The Rhine along its right 
— the German — bank, is accompanied as far as Lauterberg by the heav- 
ily timbered mountain ridges of the so-called "Black Forest." These 
stretch nearly down to the banks of the river, and continue so nearly 
down from Schlingen. From there mountains extend off the river at 
a distance of about one to two Grerman miles, forming the fertile val- 
ley of the Rhine. The discontinuation of the Black Forest from these 
plains is quite abrupt and bluff. The Black Forest at the upper end, 
as far as the River Murg, appears as a rugged and almost impenetra- 
ble fastness, over the summit of which but few paths lead. Length- 
ways along the summit the mountain roads are almost impassable, so 
that the Black- Forest there may be considered a heavy obstacle to 
all military operations. Its breadth from Muhlheim to Blumberg is 
ten G-erman miles, although in the north it loses of its breadth as 
well as elevation, footing up but six and a half miles between Frei- 
burg and Donau-Eschingen, and but six miles between Baden and the 
city of Weil, at an elevation the same as at the strong fortress Rastatt. 
The central part of the Black Forest, from the Murg to the Pfing, 
admits of a more passable formation, and at its lower end from the 
Pflng to the Neckar it gently verges into undulating hill lands. In 
consequence of which the central and lower sections of the Black 
Forest can barely be considered more than a weighty obstacle to mili- 
tary operations, when large armies are concerned. Further to the 
north is the Odenwald, or Odenforest, with which the space from 
the river Neckar to the river Main is filled. The slope of these hil- 
locks are steep towards the Neckar, and even the more elevated por- 
tions of it are rough and densely timbered. The leading roads avoid 



70 

the Odenwald ; others are scarce, aucl very bad in rainy weather and 
during winter, l)ecause of the limy and muddy soil, so that this hilly 
section might likewise be termed an obstacle to military operations. 
(Between the Rhine and the western section of the river Maili, the 
Odenwald, as well as the Black Forest, aflbrd the richest kind of 
farming lands to a width of two to three German miles.) 

Upon the left bank of the Ehine, opposite the Black and the Oden ■ 
Forests, stretch the Vosges mountains, upon French soil. These rise in 
the neighborhood of the source of the river Moselle (in equal eleva- 
vation with Muhlheim, Blumberg, therefore exactly opposite the Black 
Forest in its largest horizontal and vertical Caitension) and like the 
Black Forest, fall steeply towards the valley of the Rhine, gradually 
diminishing towards the north, in both elevation and breadth. In the 
palatinate, as well as in the moimtaius of the Haardt, the Vosges bor- 
der there upon a broad valley of the Rhine, and are frequently crossed 
b}^ roads and even railroads. 

If one so compares the so-called military sections of the country adja- 
cent to both banks of the Rhine, one finds that the higher and less 
passable elevations of the mountains on both sides are in the South, 
and not easily suitable for military operations. From Rastatt-Hagenau 
down, the valley of the Rhine appears to become much broader, and 
the mountains more passable. Should, therefore, military oj^erations 
take place south of the river Main, it must necessarily be between 
Mayence, Saarbruck, Strasburg, Rastatt, Pforzheim, Heilbronn, 
Wurzburg, and Fraukfort-on-the-Main. The impassable parts of the 
mountains of the " Oden Forest " may be in this case avoided, from 
the southwest, either via Darmstadt or Heidelberg, towards Wurzburg 
Up to Lauterburg, the Rhine opposite France, forms a line of defense. 
The German-French boundary from Lauterburg, as far as the neutral 
Grand Duch}' of Luxemburg, however, is free, and the German terri- 
tory behind exjoosed to hostile invasion. To the northwest, from 
Lauterbach, the Kaardt rises, of which mountain chain already men- 
tion has been made! It falls abruptly towards the east, while towards 
the west it gradually verges into an open, hilly ground. From 
Kaisers Lautern, through a sort of sink which separates the Haardt 
from the Mountains of Donner, as well as through numerous valleys, 
there lead railroads and many other roads, from the ujDper Saar 
to the Rhine, as far as Lauterburg-Bingen. The valley of the Nahe 
forms towards the northwest, the . last chance for these communica- 
tions. On the other side of the Nahe, between it and the other rivers, 
the Moselle and the Saar, the Mountains of the Dog's Back extend, 
which, together with the Mountains of Taunus, surround the 
stream, and. like those latter mountains, characterize themselves by 
their rocky ground and yawning abysses, encircling the lower val- 



71 

leys. Along the narrow valley of the Moselle, spirally appear, oppos- 
ite the Dog's Back, the princij)al sections of the West Lower-Rhinish 
hilly landscapes, which cover the whole country half clown the Maas, 
and are known by the names, Eifel and High Veen', together with 
the mountainous country of the Westerwald, (or Westerforest) and 
that of the so-called Sauerland encompassing the Rhine further down 
as far as the neighborhood of Bonn. The Plateaux of the Eifel and 
High Veen are, moreover, compressed and very rough, especially when 
these approach the deep crevices which ultimately lead into the larger 
valleys of the Moselle, and especially the Rhine, besides are studded 
everywhere with isolated peaks and entire and conically-shaped 
mountain ranges, befitting them very unfavorably for military opera- 
tions upon a large scale. 

As the system of the communication answers to the topography of 
the country, as just now sketched, it becomes evident that it is and 
would so be found the most widely spread in the valley of the 
Rhine, between Lauterburg and Mayence, and on the other side in 
the belt between the Rhine and the Maas. In the Eifel High Veen 
and in the Dog's Back it has fewer branches, while among the hilly 
lands, as well as in the Haardt, communications are mostly formed by 
defiles. 

Erom the peculiar condition of the boundary line, as well as from 
the geographical relationship to adjacent objects, it is clear that mili- 
tary operations which are aimed at Paris by Grermany, and at Berlin 
by France, can be undertaken by two routes : the one by way of the 
Bavarian palatinate of the Rhine, above Mayence, and the other 
by way of the Upper Maas in France via Luxemburg, in the vicinity of 
Duseldorff, or, vice versa. The valley of the Moselle, with the adja- 
cent impassable portions of the Dog's Back and of the Eifel, confronts 
both directions of these military operations, separating both battle 
grounds from one another. 



PART THE FOURTH. 



THE PRUSSIAN AND FRENCH ARMY ORGANIZATIONS. 



It is well known that France can throw an army upon the Rhine 
much easier than Prussia can, because the way from Paris to Saar 
Louis is but half as far as from Berlin to Saar Louis, and the yearly 
frequented camp of Chalons, as well as the strong and well mantled 
fortresses of Metz and Strasburg, (which since have capitulated) close 
upon the boundary of Germany, and facilitate essentially the initia- 
tive to such a mammothian enterprise. It was, therefore, on the part 
of the Germans, no useless apprehension of such surprise, as it would 
have forced them beyond the Rhine. But the haste with which the 
French diplomatists accelerated the breach of peace, upon which the 
declaration of war should immediately follow, a proof of their utter 
ignorance of affairs in Germany, especially of military organizations, 
prevented the execution of the attempt at a suiprise which otherwise, 
beyond a doubt, would have become dangerous to Prussia. 

France, however, unable to act as quickly as the voluble tongue of 
•her diplomatists dictated, gave Germany time to rally her strength to 
a proportionate extent. The cause itself of their delay in action, 
from the declaration of war to the commencement of hostilities, was 
chiefly in placing the French army on a war footing, the consequence 
of an organization so extremely bad, that it frustrated the advantages 
that its greater strength in times of peace decidedly possesses over 
the Prussian. Single sections of the army, for instance, the guards, 
soon gathered their quotum of men from soldiers on furlough 
in and near Paris; likewise the Zouaves Turcos and the Foreign Le- 
gion, which sustain in times of peace their full strength; all these are 
quickly put in marching order. Even the infantry has, in proportion 
to the Prussian, far less reserves and furlough to gather. 

Yet the draft requires a greater time, because the regiments have to 
draw their men, not from certain provinces close by, but from all over 
the country. In the Pnissian military organization, however, each 
army corps is formed of men drawn from a certain province or county; 
for instance, Pomerania, Mark, Westphalia, etc., and the war material 
attached to it likewise from there. Such a system for the organiza- 



73 

tion of army corps, divisions and brigades is unknown in France; 
their regiments receive their reserves as promiscuously gathered from 
all over the Empire. (Which, by the by, to California readers it may 
be interesting to remember, has two hundred thousand English square 
miles, with about thirty-six millions of population upon it, while our 
beloved State, Eureka, has one hundred and eighty-eight thousand 
square miles, and about one million thoroughly happy people upon 
it, who, by way of a j)ast-time, always prefer bear-hunting to man- 
slaughter, and a serene happiness to the agony of ambition.) 

Besides, in France there is no organization which reaches beyond 
the formation of a regiment. The tactical combination of army corps, 
the brigade division and corps connections, which in Prussia are per- 
manent, have in the French army, at the commencement of a war, to 
be newly formed. 

To these military defects may be added those of State. The Gov- 
ernment is, in a manner, unnaturally centralized in Paris, which 
tends to suifocate and stifle all progress in towns and counties, by 
alienating the thousands of various officials there from their duty as 
free men, to be at all times personally responsible for their actions. 
Everything has to emanate from Paris, and unless it is there com- 
manded, nothing whatever is done in the counties. 

In Germany, especially in war times, every official throughout the 
Empire holds in readiness what could possibly, and on a sudden, 
be of him required by his immediate superior, so that as to the 
army, the fact may be illustrated to its full admiration, that although 
not a soldier of the entire army stood in the ranks on the 15th of July, 
yet on the 4th of August, the frontier of Germany, towards France, 
was found guarded in a manner that made a surprise on the part of 
the French an impossibility. 

But France had been busy ever since Sadowa, to put her army, if 
not on a war footing, at least in readiness, and Minister Rouher never 
uttered a more truthful word than when he said that peace, at that 
date, existed only because Napoleon was not ready. May be he would 
have waited still further, if he had succeeded in gaining Prussia over 
to his plans in regard to the annexation of Belgium, and on the other 
hand, by so much waiting and inertness, could have been sure that 
the army would not have forsaken him. But the French army, ever 
since 1866, underwent reforms ; the nation had been roused from its 
security, although it was felt its present army system could not stand 
securely the shock of war, especially against Prussia. Said reforms 
were of a two -fold kind : either of a jDractical nature, like the intro- 
duction of the Chassepot rifle, the replenishing of the arsenals, the 
increase of stock of small arms, the change in the system of drilling, 
the rebuilding of eastern fortresses fit to stand the new inventions in 



74 

cannon: — or again reached the basis of army regulations, the recruit- 
ing system, or amended the hxw to buy off allegiance to serve ; like- 
wise the time of service in the army; the duty as reservist and the 
establishment of the Mobile or volunteer guard. All these changes were 
well conceived, but did not eradicate the evil. The permission to buy 
off service had been considerably curtailed, but the main defect in the 
French army system: the want of every kind of reserve remained 
unaltered to its former full and joernicious extent. As to the Guard 
Mobile, it was but a sorry imitation of the Prussian Landwehr system, 
which all military men have entirelj' condemned. Particularly bad had 
been the effect upon the military system of the expedition to Mexico, 
having cost so much money, and above all, having injured the French 
nation. The Government would not dare to state the figures it had 
amounted to. All that was done, instead of replenishing the lost 
material, large furloughs were granted to artillery and cavalry, which 
put the arm}' into such a state that it required all the energy and 
indefatigable spirit of Marshal Niel, as Minister of War, to set 
things somewhat right. The Senate granted one hundred and fifty- 
eight million francs, and in 18G8 sanctioned a loan of four hundred 
and eleven million francs. All this money had been expended on 
military purjDoses, as re-building of forts, manufacturing of Chasse- 
pot rifles and other war materials. To every regiment of the line 
were added two new companies ; a new regiment of Chasseurs had 
been formed so as to reach the former compliment of cavalry; the artil- 
leiy augmented in 1867 by one hundred and twenty cannon, made in 
Austria and Germany, and a purchase made of thirty-six thousand 
horses, and in 1868 ten thousand horses and mules additionally. 
Marshal Niel then declared that but twenty-eight thousand horses 
more were needed to consider the entire army on a war footing. 
Probably that statement had been as incorrect as that there should 
be ready up to 1870 nine hundred and twenty-two thousand Chassepot 
rifles. 

But there were other defects in the French army which were not 
changed by these amendments and augmentations of materials. Louis 
Napoleon had made his Marshals millionaires, and his soldiers pecuni- 
arly independent. In 1855 he had introduced by law the horrid prac- 
tice of a buying off' service ; a miserable system, according to which 
every Frenchman could rid himself of military duty, by paying into 
the Dotation Fund the sum of two thousand three hundred to two 
thousand eight hundred francs, obliging the State to find a substitute 
for him. In order to do so, the State re-enlisted old soldiers about 
to quit, by paying them a bonus, increasing their pay, and then after 
the time of their additional service had altogether elapsed, granted 



75 

them an annuity, so that army service afforded means, after a certain 
time, of making tlie individual pecuniarly independent. 

The baneful consequences of this system to the French army, no- 
body more elaborately nor truthfully depicts and explains than Trochu, 
in his celebrated work regarding the French army. He shows therein 
that by it the consciousness of personal duty is entirely destroyed, 
when the State finds substitutes, and societies are formed which find 
such substitutes even for those who with little money can secure them- 
selves against the fatal muster roll of conscription. 

That the army had to deplore such comradeship taking the place of 
volunteers from all classes of society, is the natural consequence of 
such a system. Soldiers becoming grey in barracks cannot again 
become serviceable as industrious citizens of the nation, having alien- 
ated themselves from society, and not unfrequently become corrupted 
by vices emanating from idleness, especially bad whisky. Every am- 
bition which might have been advantageous to both ajony and people 
is thereby wantonly destroyed and made naught. 

The original intention of this system, which so signally has failed, 
had been to create an army personally devoted to the Napoleonic 
dynasty, needing no yearly additions and renovations, yet ruined the 
strength and the martial spirit of the army. Of the contingent of 
one hundred thousand men, which, since 1856, shovild yearly be got 
together, but twenty-three thousand appeared. Thus, the re-enlisted 
old soldiers footed up one hundred and twenty-five thousand men, 
and with other service added, viz., volunteers who choose the mili- 
tary career, ofiicers, gens d'arms, foreign legions, in all about two 
hundred and forty thousand men. Then the military budget of three 
hundred million francs did not suffice for four hundred thousand men 
in times of peace, although, in fact, there were but three hundred and 
thirty to three hundred and fifty thousand in all ; consequently, there 
was but room for one hundred thousand raw recruits, which was 
abundantly filled during seven years with twenty-three thousand men 
annually. In a military point of view, the natural consequence of 
this pernicious system proved to be the dying out of all strength of 
reserves. In times of war the army was without means to recuperate 
its strength from the people. Napoleon experienced it already during 
the Italian war, because in case of a war with Prussia at one and the 
same time, he had only sixty thousand men left, deducting the depots 
and fortresses, to guard the eastern frontier of France. Afterwards 
he tried his best to amend the fault. Why he did not succeed had 
two reasons — the one of a militarj^, the other of a political nature. 
From a military stand-point it contradicted the custom of annually 
recruiting ninety thousand reserves necessary for a successful reorgan- 
ization, requiring a devotion to the task of drilling on the part of 



76 

officers and sub-officers, which is not at all part of the Freuch char- 
acter. Ill the other case, by drawiug from and again returning to 
the nation, a full third of that figure would have given to the army 
the appearance of an army of the people, which did not at all suit the 
plans of Napoleon. He therefore adhered to the buying- off system 
with its old soldiers, and annually small additions, but endeavored 
to create a sort of army of reserve — this way, that by a decree of 18G1, 
he divided the number of annual recruits into two lialves ; the one 
should serve a longer time and then be attached to the so-called active 
companies, while the other half should be drilled but two or three 
months annually, and later five months, and then with their flighty 
knowledge be dismissed, yet should stand ready in war times to serve 
as recruits. Thus Napoleon thought of having solved the grand 
problem of the organization of reserved bodies. General Trochu con- 
demns it by saying it does not depend upon large ciphers, but upon 
the quality of J;roops. In 1869 the buying-oft' system was somewhat 
modified, and the old decree of 1832 reinstalled, which made it op- 
tional to the man on duty to find a substitute. The re-enlisting was 
abridged. After a five years' service the soldier should but serve 
another five years as substitute, and those which had entered a ten 
years' service should receive a situation in the civil service instead of 
pecuniary remuneration. Since 18G5, the first demand would bring a 
contingent of sixty-three thousand men ; the second, with five months' 
service, twelve thousand men. In this manner, and in obedience to 
the law of the first of February, 18G8, which guaranteed after a five 
months' service a four yearly reserve, the army in nine years, there- 
fore — 1877 — would have a strength of seven hundred and seventy-six 
thousand men. 

But the duty to serve as reservist never suited French habits, while 
the Prussian soldier serves as reservist six years, and as militia six 
years. Marshal Niel then proposed to increase the Mobile Guard uj) 
to five hundred and fifty thousand men from all over France, consist- 
ing of infantiy and artillery, tvv^o thousand men each company. They 
drilled, but could not be expected to stay more than a day from home. 
Their duty should be to i^epresent and take the place of the army in 
large cities, fortresses, and on the coast and frontier, caring likewise 
for security within the country. It consisted of young Frenchmen, 
who did not serve in the army, together with volunteers, while officers 
and sub-officers were pensioned officers and sub-officers of the regular 
army there. Besides their pension they received a handsome pay for 
this particular service. Since the death of Marshal Niel this innova- 
tion is, however, neglected, as it did not receive the approbation of 
the people, especially in the south and west of France. General 
Trochu touches these defects as not only detrimental to the taistical 



77 

advancement of the troops, but so personally. Styling the infantry 
the " Queen of Battles," he deplores their disregard. At first special 
annual recruits select their necessary arms, then the best drilled sol- 
diers are attached to the guards, and finally each battalion of the line 
adds two special companies. The consequence is, that the four com- 
panies of the center form a feeble mass. Gen. Trochu succeeded in 
abolishing the latter so as to disperse them among the whole battalion 
as soldiers of the first class, but he failed in demanding for each bat- 
talion a company of ef&cient sharpshooters besides. Gen. Trochu 
explains the want of tactical education in French officers as follows: 

" In our last wars our tactic was to allow the troops nobly inspired 
" to run for the battle-field; as soon as the first perished the battalion 
" advanced, but no longer compact, general dissolution ensued." 

Incapable of flying, and likewise incapable of being cool and col- 
lected, they stormed onward to ascertain the cause of the effect. Dis- 
obeying the officers, they became commingled in large masses with 
the enemy, which paralized the action of their artillery and cavalry, 
upsetting the plan of the battle, and all the ramified and general 
combinations which their commanders-in-chief had made. 

Gen. Trochu states that the cause is the nervous temperament of 
soldiers from bad habits acquired in Africa, reducing systematic mili- 
tary operations to a guerrilla warfare, and lastly as consequent upon 
the rigid rules of manoeuvres in time of peace, periectlj useless in 
war. 

While the French forgot the doctrine of Napoleon I, the Prus- 
sians studied it and added to its theory the experiences of the Crimean 
war, the Italian and the North American. The French adhering to 
the German idea or the old Dessauer, drilled continually in barracks, 
which J) roved to be of no use whatever in practice. 

Although on the 16th of March, 1869, new orders were given as to 
the drilling of infantry, yet France knows of its rigor little more 
to-day than it did in 1792, which shows that France is by inclination 
less martially than peacefully and republicanly inclined. 



PART THE FIFTH. 



TFIE AVAR IN DETAIL. 



At the commencemeut of the war, the French arnij confronting 
the German, footed np about four liundred thousand men, although 
nominally, all reserves included, it was given at eight hundred and 
sixty thousand men. They comprised but eight corps in all: 

Guards, under General Bourbaki. 

1st Corps " Marshal McMahon. 

2d " " General Frossard. 

3d " " Marshal Bazaine. 

4th " " General de I'Admirault. 

5th " " General de Failly. 

Gth " " Marshal Canrobert. 

7th " " General Felix Douay. 

The North German arm}^ numbered four hundred and ninety-three 
thousand men, and one thousand two hundred and forty-eight pieces 
of artillery. The militia available at any time, two hundred and 
thirty thousand men. During war the body of reserves numbers 
one hundred and thirty thousand; in all, eight hundred and fifty-three 
thousand men. The South German army numbers — Bavaria, seventy 
thousand men, with one hundred and ninety-two pieces of artillery; 
"Wurtemberg, twenty-three thousand six hundred men, and fifty-four 
pieces of artillery; Baden, twenty-one thousand six hundred men, 
and forty-two pieces of artillerj'. 

The entire army, nine hundred and sixty-eight thousand two hun- 
dred men, with one thousand five hundred and thirty-six pieces of 
artillery. 

Commander-in-Chief of the entire army is the King of Prussia. 

1st Army Corps, commanded by General von Steinmetz. 

2nd Aimy Corps, commanded by Prince Frederick Charles, of 
Prussia. 

2nd Army Corps, commanded by the Crown Prince of Prussia. 

4th Armj^ Corps, commanded by the Crown Prince of Saxony. 

First Army Corps of Eeserves, commanded by the Grand Duke of 
Mecklenbursf-Schwerin. 



79 

The Bavariam Army Corps, commanded by Greneral von der Tann. 

The Wurtemberg Army Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General 
von Obernitz. 

The Baden Army Corps, commanded by Lieutenant-General von 
Beyer. 

SKIRMISHING. 

Thii watch of the Ehine gives the alarm: 

The great horn of Orlando is sounded. 

Let Alsace be mine, which does you no harm; 

"With Metz and Lorraine the matter be rounded. — Geemania. 

Small detachments of African Chasseurs of the French army cros- 
sing the German frontier on the 19th of July, were immediately driven 
back on French soil by German Lancers. The French, returning in 
larger bodies, skirmishing commenced near Saarbruecken on the 24th; 
at the village Gerweiler, south of the little river Saar, and to the 
west of Saarbruecken, on the 26th ; and at Niederbronn, five Ger- 
man miles from the frontier, until the 30th of July, noon, when the 
first telegram was received from Trier, which stated that the enemy 
kept quiet. Later in the day, at five p.m., another telegram was 
received at Saarbruecken, which said that the German infantry had 
orders, in case of overwhelming masses, to quickly retire from Saar- 
bruecken, the cavalry only keeping the enemy in sight. It was fur- 
ther mentioned that the French were concentrating to the east of Thi- 
onville, having vacated Gersweiler, after having been chased out of 
the forest of St. Arnual. Next day, at nine a.m., a telegram was 
received from Saar Louis, which informed the German commander 
that the I'rench were beyond Forbach, with four regiments of infan- 
try strong, one company sharpshooters, three squadrons cavalry, and 
one battery. The idea of the French had been to separate the Ger- 
mans at Saar Louis from those at Trier, by destroying the railroad 
which runs parallel with the French frontier from Saarbruecken to 
Saar Louis and Trier, it being the only one which directly connects 
the latter cities. They attempted it from Forbach, a frontier town of 
French Lorraine, as it is situated opposite the Prussian frontier town 
of Saarbruecken, the railroad there being but two English miles dis- 
tant from France. St. Arnual and Gersweiler, both Prussian villages, 
are situated between Forbach and Saarbruecken, while Louisenthal 
and Voelklingen are little railroad towns between Saarbruecken and 
Saar Louis. The Germans, of course, were equally industrious in 
destroying the French railroad between Saargemund and Hagenan, 
which traverses the Rheinthal (valley of the Rhine) down to the river 
Saar, and might have been very serviceable to the French in trans- 
porting provisions for their troops, besides possessing other tactical 
and strategical advantages. 



80 

Matters became rather trifling until the 2nd of August, when sud- 
denly the French darkened the sun with the Chassepots of three 
divisions (about forty thousand men) and twenty-three pieces of artil- 
lery, under the heii' apparent, with the tremendous intention of annihal- 
ating seven hundred and fifty solitary Prussian Leonidasiaus in the 
Thermopilan passes of that anything but gappy neighborhood. The 
fourth and fifth dispatches explain this affair earnestly: " On the 
" second of August, ten a.m., the small detachment at Saarbruecken 
" was attacked by three divisions and the town bombarded with 
" twenty-three pieces of artillery. At noon the heights, and at two 
" P.M. the town were duly deserted, the detachment retiring to the 
" nearest station. Loss comparatively trifling. At the same time it 
" was mentioned that Emperor Napoleon had arrived at eleven o'clock 
" before Saarbruecken." 

On the same day the King of Prussia had arrived at Mayence. The 
command over the three army corps, duly entrusted by him to Gen- 
eral von Moltke, subdivided, as they were, into the first, the northern, 
mostly centered in the county of Trier, resting on the fortress Coblenz, 
and commanded by General von Steinmetz ; the second, the central, 
centered in the Bavarian palatinate, and resting on the fortress of 
Mayence, and commanded by Prince Frederick Charles ; and the 
third, the southern, centered in the palatinate, and resting on the 
fortress of Kastatt, commanded by the Crown Prince of Prussia; 
the venerable Moltke took command. 

THE BATTLES. 

Having issued his orders to the three army corps to advance upon 
the enemy, the southern wing, under the Crown Prince of Prussia, 
began, on the 4th of August, to close on the enemy at Weissenburg, 
Alsace, and storming the adjacent strongly fortified Graisberg, defeated 
the French division under Douay, in a very decisive manner. Con- 
tinuing to advance, the same commander, but a few days later, 
on the 6th, engaged the French in the first great battle, the 
memorable one of Woerth, in which the third army put to flight 
the first corps of the French, under Marshal McMahon, while on 
the same day the Northern army, under Steinmetz, with death- 
defying impetuosity, stormed the heights of Si)icheren, defeat- 
ing Frossard, in command of the second corps of the French. The 
natural consequence of these thorough victories had been that the 
entire French army was forced to retreat towards the river Moselle. 

To counteract the terrible blow which French official statements of 
victories, instead of defeats, had dealt to the dynasty of Napoleon, the 



81 

Emperor decided upon transferring the command of the French army 
to Marshal Bazaine. ' 

Be it remembered that the genius of Moltke having so placed the 
German army as to form with its three army corps a wide half-circle, 
of which the center under Prince Charles had not as yet been in action 
at all, Moltke now commanded the united forces to at once close upon 
Metz, the virgin fortress of Grermany, taken from her three hundred 
and nineteen years ago, and one of the principal strongholds of 
France. 

Although the French army had entrenched itself near the river 
Nied, on French territory, it, nevertheless, vacated the neighborhood, 
crossing the river Moselle, near Metz, upon the cavalry of the Ger- 
mans arriving before Metz, Pont-a-Mousson, and Nancy, together 
with sections of the army from Strasburg. Here it was, before Metz, 
where in three days the redoubtable Germans dashed to pieces the 
old glory of French arms, and transferred upon themselves the grim 
visage of Mars, who, wherever he thrones, holds the crimes which are 
heirs to barbarism in subjugation I On the fourteenth of August, 
General Steinmetz threw into confusion three French divisions, at 
Pange and Courcelles, forcing them back upon Metz. On the six- 
teenth, Prince Frederick Charles having crossed the Moselle but a day 
previously, annihilated in twelve hours, at Mars la Tour and Vionville, 
the martial pride of selected French troops, while on the eighteenth 
of August the venerable hero. King William, in grand command 
of the whole slaughtering force, attacked the French in their fortified 
position to the west of Metz, and wrung from them in nine hours time 
the victories at Gravelotte and Razonville, beyond a doubt for ever fatal 
to the French nation as a ruling war power in Europe. 

From that hour history asserts it that the French had to yield the 
continental power of Europe to Germany as practical^ consequent 
upon this very victory, and owing to the decided superiority in the 
leadership over the German armies in comparison with the one over 
the French. Leaf after leaf was duly plucked by Germany from 
gory battle fields in victories without end, in self-defence of her 
national independence, and to wind the wreath of laurels which shall 
forever grace the broad forehead of Germania, as the future continental 
safeguard of peace, enlightenment, and constant exercise in humane 
deeds of love. The newly-born sister of America will, in due time, 
receive the baptismal of political liberty, without restraint, as the 
natural consequence of the prodigious effect of universal free schools, 
to be realized in times of peace only ; but until then, in the face of the 
awful fact of being closely surrounded by less advanced, and conse- 
quently murderous and warlike nations, on the continent of Europe, 

9 



82 

Germany lias to stand for possibly a generation to come in the unen- 
yiable position of a gaoler. 

It has, furtliermore, to enforce law and order at home, to prevent a 
disturbance of tlie prolific soil against immature republicanism, best 
denominated " the unripe fruit of knowledge insstead of communism." 
The sound seed is long ago sown ; like upon a bed of ilowers, the 
young plants in due time ajipear and become visible in masses upon 
a sudden, so shall Germany produce in due time a compact mass of 
principally equally informed millions of men, who, in their real, con- 
sequently social amiability, shall so have universally advanced, and so 
be considered sufferable to each other, while coming in contact with 
one another in public life, as to lie able to neutralize the chilly fog of 
the spirit of caste, which hangs over all aristocratic atmosphere, and 
obscures the happiness of all on the sole account of that uneven dis- 
tribution of knowlege. Dispersed, the genial warmth of the ever 
charitable sun of enlightenment, will quickly mature reason so as to 
make the obvious truth fully bloom in all its pristine loveliness, that 
every man living at any time ujioii earth shall not merely be his own 
independent sovereign, but respect the sovereignt}' of every other man 
he sees living next to him, near him, far and wide. 

When on the evening of the last named great day, the Pomera- 
nians, the bravest of the brave, on a par in physical strength with 
our stalwart backwoods-men, stormed,- under the very eyes of 
Moltke, all the heights to make sure of victory, when the legions un- 
der Bazaine waved for shelter towards the walls of Metz, (Moselle) 
when at last the greatest warrior of the age, the aforesaid Moltke, 
testified to the historically astounding truth of a complete victory: 
Suddenly appearing before the King, merely saying, while he delib- 
erately wiped his forehead with his handkerchief, " Sire, the battle 
is won, the enemy retires," — then it was that the French war power 
was crushed, and European civilization rescued from the fangs of 
surplus crime and that mediiBval sujierstition so easily practiced in 
blood. 

Glermany, the world may rest assured, shall never have to blush 
before it, as having had other intentions than to prepare Europe for 
self-government, but not until that distracted division of the globe 
is thoroughly competent for the task through education and general 
enlightenment, which shall, like with us, ensure a peaceful permanency 
to the republic of nations, shall she relinquish the grasp upon the 
sword to awe the vast millions of Europe in obedience into law and or- 
der, nor cease to prevent unmerciful masses from blaspheming before- 
hand with carnage, and revenge the sacred republic and her worthy 
disciples in France and everywhere else in Europe. 

Bazaine, with a greater portion of the French army thrown into 



83 

Metz, McMahon, with the remainder of the army thoroug'hly pre- 
vented from joining- Bazaine, the Germans found free the road to 
Paris. 

Prince Frederick Charles immediately tightening the ring around 
Metz, the 3d army corps, under the Grown Pjince of Prussia, began 
at once to march upon Paris in a south- westerly- direction, in company 
with the newly formed 4th army corps commanded by the Crown 
Prince of Saxony, moving n'orthwardly along the river Maas. 

Suddenly their movements had to be changed, as McMahon having 
received reinforcements, had quitted the Camp at Chalons (Marne); 
but instead of hastening to cover Paris, he endeavored to again reach 
the north, intentionally of joining Bazaine. However, the Crown 
Prince of Saxony barricaded his way on the 27th of August, near 
Busancy, w^hich afforded the army under the Crown Prince of Prus- 
sia the necessary time for returning from the feint, and joining the 
former, enabling the Germans to conjointly finish the army of Mc- 
Mahon at Beaumont, and in a manner that a junction with Bazaine 
was henceforth not only made impossible, but the single road into 
Belgium at all left for the disorganized columns of the French to pos- 
sibly effect their escape upon. 

Bazaine likewise had not been idle. On the 31st of August he de- 
bouched with all his forces, left at his disposal, in an easterly direc- 
tion towards Servigny and Noisseville, trying with all his might to 
break the iron fetters of the Germans. However, the heroic resist- 
ance of the division of Kummer, and of the East Prussians under Maii- 
teuffel, impenetrable like bristling cactus hedges, forced him after a 
fight of thirty-two hours duration, to return to his prison. During 
the night, from the 31st of August to the 1st of September, the Prus- 
sians, Saxons, and Bavarians, forming upon the banks of the river 
Maas, encircled the French army in a wide space to the east of the 
fortress Sedan (Maas). With the dawn of da}'-, the terrific battle, 
of which history shall forever make mention, commenced with 
what was designed to either capture or route the entire French 
army and finish the war. The French driven from the villages Fioing 
and Bazeilles, before a fire out of 800 pieces of artillery, the circle of 
the German army became smaller and smaller, until the enemy within, 
inclusive of Napoleon, was hurled like Caffres into a kraal, in hurried 
flight into Sedan. Forsaken by his own soldiers, who had lost their 
irresistible elan, and under circumstances had become demoralized, 
Napoleon wrote to the King of Prussia ex])ressing himself willing to 
deliver up his sword- and himself as prisoner of war. Maximum im.~ 
perium sibi imperare. The capitulation of the army followed next 
day; Marshal McMahon, being dangei'ously wounded^ General 



84 

Wimptfen delivered up the army, 83,000 men, with 4,000 officers. A 
few hours later Napoleon appeared before the King" of Prussia. 

The Napoleonic empire broken upon the battle-field on the 2d Sep- 
tember, 1870, which news Palikao kept secret for forty-eight hours, 
ceased to be on the 4tli of September a national institution of France. 
With it disappeared the Empress, her son, Benedetti, Ollivier, and 
especially, Grammont, and as usually the republic was declared. 

In the most brilliant manner have victories upon victories justified 
the Prussian military organization of 18G0 as the greatest providen- 
tial fortune which ever Grermany was favored by. It has served as 
the mightiest aid towards the accomplishment of the union of Ger- 
many. The few croakers against it in Southern Germany have disaj)- 
pcared as if by magic, and are not any longer noticing the bard 
Count F. Filippi de Faby, who resides at a short distance from Berlin, 
in No. 22 Place Naj)oleon Cherbourg, who tried to chant a poem to 

them : 

D'uu Napoleou, la gloire 
Voiis voit encoro abat\is: 
C'est tonjonr la votre histoire 
La seiil (le vos vertiis. 
Vous pensier d'etre iuvincibles 
Soit domi^te penple trop vaiu ! 
Ponr toi, restaut inflexibles 
Nous ganlous les bords dii Rhine. 

[Exit Napoleon and his bard forever.] 

Created in ISfiO and improved upon and introduced into all Ger- 
many in 18GG, the Prussian military organization has saved Germany. 
Through it the country- was enabled to appear upon the frontier with 
an overAvhelming army, to surprise and defeat the single divisions of 
the enemy in constant succession. The enormous number of reserv- 
ists and militia put Germany in a position to immediately fill voids 
which a murderous fire had made, and without allowing a weakening 
of the army of operations to take place, made it possible that strong- 
divisions of reserve could enter France, and large numbers of com- 
panies of militia could occupy the long lines of oj^erations and re- 
possess those portions of territory which had lately been occupied. 

The North German divisions of militia alone amount to over 200,000 
men, and the South German divisions over 30,000 men. That they 
are' all very competent has become known even abroad, especially so 
they have proved at the siege as well as in the close battles before 
Metz. Germany would have had no chance of success in a war like 
this, in which it not only depended upon victory after victoiy to pre- 
vent the enemy from recuperating, but to hold the ground which had 
been conquered, which comprised pretty nearly one-third of France, 
if it had not been for the Prussian organization of the army. It has 
not only created an army of unsurpassed numerical vastness, but 
every soldier was fit to be called one, which alone culminated in the 
success of subduing the French upon their own ground- 



PART THE SIXTH. 



THE FRENCH REPUBLIC 



It appears reasonably certain that no monarch can fill the vacant 
chair of Favre! Had FaA^-e at once remained as President of the 
republic instead of Thiers — a former Minister of Louis Phillip — 
being substituted, not only would the rebellion from the 18th of 
March to the 19th of May, 1871, not have occurred, but the republic 
would have been maintained quite satisfactorily to the majority of the 
people. If the rejDublic cannot command respect by virtue of the 
law, how can a future monarch protect the law without access to 
force ? It is therefore reasonable that the republic be maintained 
and thus peace made lawful, without a name as President, Avhose an- 
tecedents were monarchical, and who as such must be obnoxious to 
the very people who with giad consent declared and voted the repub- 
lic on the 4th of September. Besides, to return to monarchs them- 
selves whom the French nation indulged in only for vainglory of- their 
arms, is now made impossible since the Napoleons, so to say, self- 
made monarchs by success of arms, and not of blue blood, are like- 
wise legitimately and consistently obliterated from their memory. 
The second Napoleon in rule having filled the right scale to an over- 
flow of miserj' for the nation, justice now lifts high the left scale of 
the first Napoleon, with his martial and especially his political suc- 
cesses, as based and consequent upon his ambition and meddlesome 
diplomacy, which succeeded so long in alienating the Southern Ger- 
man States from the natural tie of the Northern, upon the obtuse 
plea that the humanization of mankind, heterogeneous as to national- 
ities, could be effected luifhout preparatory education — under monarchi- 
cal rule — in other words, by rude force. 

As to Germany, the world will admit that in regard to the Union of 
Germany, it is not the offspring of fear of Prussia on the part of the 
Southern German States, but is the natural consequence of enlight- 
enment having attained its principal height in Prussia, diffused itself 
through the North as well as through Bavaria, Baden and Wurtem- 
berg, and is daily encouraged in by the example of America, where 
about eight millions of citizens reside who are of German orisrin. 



86 

(As to manifestations of rejoicings of the latter at the Union so 
cemented by brotherly love, they were indeed touching in the extreme. 

The torch-light processions in beautiful San Francisco — a distance 
from Germany of just about half around the globe— were large' 
enough, on several occasions, to suffice to illuiui.'iate the hearts of all 
Germany as now seen from the Cathedral of -Strasburg, and make 
them confident as sympathy can onl3\) 

Again, the conduct of the revolutionists in Paris, proves conclu- 
sively that the greatest freedom from caste cannot aid the Republic at 
all, unless the people become universally enlightened, and conse- 
quently peaceable, by means of a radical reform in school education, 
and make it everywhere a municipal law that the poorest of tbe 
poor children of the million have free and unpaid access, to it. 
The pedigree of civilization rests upon merit, as merit upon knowl- 
edge, and knowledge upon developed reason through education in 
peaceful times. It will place itself where it belongs in progress, aided 
by the Odd-Fellowship of the appreciation of the M'orth of man, in 
this enlightened age, which knows naught but of merit. That merit 
has but one towering ambition : to please God !* 

* Diverge to the very antipodes of the globe, and, for instance, i^lace God's child 
of a Cannibal of the ISolomon grouj) off Northeastern Anstraha, whose parent, 
to-day, habitually partakes of man food, into civihzed hands at a very tender age, 
give it education, and nourish its di^ ine soul with love, and it will be in proper time 
as useful a member of society us anybody else. But should an uncharit;ible aristo- 
crat by heart, although republican by name— an ignorant aythiopologist, who, vexed 
at being unable to find out whether Adam and Eve, names which shall signify the 
first pair of the human race, who lived and were created to live the short space of 
time upon earth, had been brown, yellow, red, black or white, where, and especially 
when those two had been living, if such an ante-mundane visionary should get hold 
of the Uttle one, then, of course, it is not to be wondered at, should he be all his life- 
time airaid of the anthropophagic propensities of an innocent child's late royal 
savage great gi-andfathers. 

Forgetting that the Mongolians settled in Europe though comparatively to the Jura 
period but a few years ago, he is incensed at the Chinese in China remaining again 
concealed, and won't even associate with him there, nor of their own accord visit 
him here, until he shall have proved to them in their own vernacular, which is 
necessary for him to do, in order to introduce an effect upon their understanding, 
how much better he is than they are, and in what his superiority over them exists, 
and more than that, shall have convinced them of it within the top of their cues. How 
wonderfully he will do in China, where they pretend to have never heard of earth- 
quakes in Java, or the Eed Sea flooding the globe, the dense milUons then of East- 
ern Asia not having been communicative, and with whom a few days, synonymous of 
a few thousand years later, Vasco de Gama and Magellan found that virtues existed 
which it must have taken ages to acquire— for instance, that hunger is with them 
interpreted by cheerful labor, a good appetite by health ; thirst is assuaged by tea, 
and quarrels by smoke, and love, the i^riceless treasure of the heart, is not a ware 
which is vended in Sultanic callousness, and who as one nation foot up a concourse 



87 

History now continues its pages of this war, as unwisely waged by 
the Kepublic of France. It is, therefore, the second period of the 
war. Before it so does, reference to important events which have 
occurred in the east of France, take due precedent. Just as little as 
it had been possible for the French armies to resist upon the open 
battle-field the efficient precision of the German artillery, could the 
fortresses in the north-east of France do it, which it was necessary 
for the Germans to take. A number of them had capitulated up to 



of 400,000,000 people, possessing a literature without an alphabet, and a language 
without a grammar, thus realizing the solution of the greatest enigma ever heard of. 
As to countless centuries, during which the Government has been in the hands of 
State philosophers, and the vernacular dialects have been abandoned to the laboring 
classes, how he will be startled to find that the Chinese language is, notwithstanding, 
by no means the most intricate, cumbrous, and unwieldy vehicle of thought, that 
ever in spite of eighteen distinct dialects, obtained credence among other people 
including himself. 

The fact is, it is for this Government to enlighten the remainder of the civilized 
world upon the immediate consequences so multitudinously resulting from steam, 
now permanently connecting the great race of mankind in Asia, inclusive of Japan- 
ese, and exclusive of Hindoos, (as being the latter taken care of by the British) 
nearly 450,000,000 of people, with all the chances of an appreciation of our system 
of civilization, from which consequences the realization of our hopes of success of 
progress among mankind at large may be safely predicted, upon one condition, viz. , 
that the Chinese language be introduced all over the less populated civilized world. 
It being the language spoken by a living people numbering 400,000,000, would be 
far more useful in the end to know than any language except the English ; and as to 
Latin and Greek, the wisdom derived through them from those defunct pagan nations 
might be found, upon close study, considerably exceeded and excelled, for what we 
are really aware of this day, by the Chinese classics, and at once much valuable time 
saved to the LIVING AGE. A people so very ancient and great in numbers, who 
carry with them, wherever they happen to go for a minute or two, three standard 
virtues of our civilization — Peacefulness, Industry, and Sobriety — should not be 
reasoned with by the sword by any nation, as stamping the civilized and reasoning 
world in their eyes as far more uncivilized and unreasonable, than they themselves are, 
at least surely were, previous to this century, in that particular respect, and fully 
explains that, for the present, the Chinese are not a migrating people, and when they 
do, proudly enshroud themselves in their ancient habits, not finding the civilized 
world at all comprehensibly superior to themselves. 

Another reason is this, that they, when traveling, acquire knowledge of the Eng- 
lish language, and interpret falsely our civilization after their own concretely, pre- 
judiced fa^shion, because a mere smattering of a foreign language, sufficient in daily 
life, is quite insufficient to draw wisdom from literature, nor adequate to do justice 
to and appreciate the virtues of a people, while we, altogether, tapping in darkest 
ignorance of the Chinese language, presumj^tively judge at random from hearsay, 
knowing in reality next to nothing ourselves personally of them. All this accounts 
that the Chinese contribute nothing to our civilization, except eatables and wearables, 
nor voluntarily and gladly allow the civilized world to benefit them, because of igno- 
rance of their language, and prejudices of every sort against them, as consequent 
upon general ignorance of their literature. That China and Japan are redeemable 



88 

September, 1870, after a resistance of more or less duration of time — 
but two of them, Strasburg and Metz, had not. Being strongly for- 
tified, they fell into German bands much later, and not until after a 
long and laborious siege. Already in August the Government over 
l^he two provinces of Alsace and the German part of Lorraine, 
had been duly and justly transferred to German}', as one of the 
necessities and consequences of the war. Not only are the people of 
Alsace and Lorraine originally German, whom the sacred duty to the 
Union require that they should be annexed, no matter how long a 
time they had been alienated from her, but, by abridging them from 
France and adding them to Germany, the numerical strength of the 
former became duly diminished, while that of the latter augmented 



in time to republicanism, throiigh adoption of onr civilization, appears very eucour- 
agingl}- certain from the virtues aforenamed, which they very universally possess to 
an astonishing degree, and the friendliness which their Governments and peoples 
show America in preference to Europe, which they view as a toru-to-pieces conglom- 
eration of small nations, very far inferior to them in compactness, and as they, con- 
clude, from constant wa7-s, in all other respects. No ! our honor now forbids to rest, 
since steam affords lis a constant opportunity of coming in close contact with them, 
until we can explain to them in their own vernacular why we are the civilizod peo- 
ple, of whom they would and should profit, morally, socially, and materially, and 
thus gain upon them the adoption of our American principles of civilization, and the 
steady customship of innumerable articles of commerce, especially the consumption 
of our impeneti-able forests, which, on the Knitchpack, in Alaska alone, would pay 
for the little outlay of $7,2oU, 000 ten-fold to begin mth, and which, otherwise, would 
stay there until the next flood. 

The antipathy which the civilized world has against them to-day, as absorbing 
labor to the pecuniary detriment of oiir people, would last forever, as consequent 
, upon the imj)ossibility of nationally and familiarlj' associating with them as yet, on 
account of the prevailing ignorance of their language, and our pardonable prejudices 
against their tastes, their habits, and their manners, in consequence of having, so to 
say, but now come in earnest contact with them since the creation of the world, 
which reciprocated antifjathy befogs the true interests and enlightened duties of two 
halves of mankind. 

The time has come for the ice of clannishness and intolerance — the oifspring of 
ignorance — to melt, before the genial warmth of an ever-progressing, universal 
enlightenment, and the question forever and ever truthfully answered. Has God cre- 
ated two halves of mankind, that they should live estranged upon this earth ? — that 
they should hve in enmity, or be the laughing stock of each other V Has the aristo- 
crat ever charitably conceived it that the savage lives by the same grace of the 
Almighty Creator of the ilhmitable Universe as he does ? And that, consequently, 
he should go there and befriend him, and consider the Samaritan promptingr< of such 
an act in the light of a performance of a filial duty to God, and himseK as a 
gentleman. Besides, what would our civilization really amount to if we could uot 
make more money out of barbarians than they of us? On the other hand, in what 
does Eui-ope benefit America ? Setting aside the immigrant question, in what would 
it so do, suppose we had no commerce with Asia, with Oceanica, and with Africa ? 
Perhaps the aristocrat will condescend to answer candidly ! Again, how those 



89 

to approach to and form an equal balance of power of strength 
among the two nations, which, for the sake of peace hereafter, was, 
more than any other reclamation, absolutely necessary, and, there- 
fore, demanded of France to comply with. 

The hue and cry which arose against this proceeding among civil- 
ized nations, had a treble origin, all of which three reasonings were 
not alone unjust, but wrong altogether. 

Firstly. The republicans all over the world thought it their duty to 
be with the Republic of France, as Napoleon had left with no possi- 
bilit}^ of a return; who, having once not only abjured the Republic, 



Chinese and Japanese yearn to learn of us, the Japanese have lately best shown. 
Therefore, it is our turn, indeed, to quickly learn, if not Japanese, at least Chinese, 
as being a vernacular spoken by a ten times larger nation than the Japanese lan- 
guage is diffused among, teach it in all public schools of America and Europe. 
Waste no more time upon dead languages than is materially considered absolutely 
necessary. Our Oriental students coming here to study Webster, Clay, and Sumner, 
and finding us bending over Plato, Cicero, or Demosthenes, would politely substi- 
tute the great Chinese Confucitis, and with all the etiquette of a devout Salaam, leave 
for home by the next mail steamer. 

The smaller scholars in our schools would be far more amused to learn Chinese 
than any European language, for the reason that the writing is so contrived as to 
denote by the same character the sounds of each of the nineteen different words, all 
of which it equally represents, and is, therefore, very easily acquired. It is likewise 
known that it is of no great use among the multitude in China who cannot read, 
which would be of so much greater advantage to our people in the end. 

At present it appears that of all the great scholars of the Chinese language, outside 
that mysterious fraternity, there is probably not one who to-day can converse in six 
of those aforesaid eighteen dialects, or could either orthographically write or inter- 
pret an important State paper without the assistance of a teacher. Alas ! Those 
teachers, who are they ? So far to foreigners in China, on account of prejudice and 
mistrustfulness on the part of the Chinese, for reasons above stated, the teachers which 
can be obtained are obviously but the very scum and refuse of the Chinese literary 
body, the plucked of the examinations, and the runagates from justice or tyranny. 
These are engaged at a lower salary by foreigners than thoy would obtain among the 
Chinese as Secretaries to a high official, if they were otherwise suitable ; and if they 
are calygraphists, or speak a tolerable idiom, or pronounce with a certain purity of 
accent, (although they have to be unavoidably feared as domestic spies, repeating all 
they see and hear) they are blandly respected by some confiding Sinologue, who 
maintains them because he can't help himself. If one of those Chinese philologists 
should happen also to be the son of some small mandarin, he becomes to his pupil 
a very great authority on Chinese politics . Chinese politics ! Good ! Non-inter- 
course ! which signifies that all mankind is barbarous save themselves, because they 
can do without the outside world of 600,000,000, and have so done for ages, together 
with the Japanese, while we cannot do without them, because we need their teas. 
The above teacher is, at the same time, a Petronius of Chinese ceremonial. Papers 
are indited, and foreign policy is shaped according to the response of this oracle. 
The Sinologue who derives his inspiration from this source, is again taken as an 
absolute authority by the civilized world in general. He has, furthermore, to think 
it his official duty to adopt, while he is in the flowery land, what he is given to 
10 



90 

had ever since availed himself of his sovereign power to gratify dynas- 
tical pride at the expense of the prodigal trust of a confiding nation. 
That from under imperial robes, thus folded a republican heart, 
should designedly have disguised itself, harboring the noble intention 
of setting Europe free after France should have conquered its heteroge- 
neous millions and annexed them to France, upon the example of Amer- 
ica absorbing into the folds of outstretched brotherly arms the emigrant 
from any portion of the terrestrial globe, the world has long ago 
eschewed as a base imposition upon its credulity, and therefore exe- 
crated the Napoleons. 

The idea of monarchs and concjuerors taking America as an 
example ! Why, America, no more than a Free Mason or an Odd 

understand are Chinese customs, and to amuse himself the best way he can by pity- 
ing instead of studying the Chinese anti-flooded, rather antique and interesting cere- 
monial of -lOU, 000,000 peaceable, sober, and industrious people. 

Returning to the moral principle of republicanism as resting upon enlightenment, 
it is considered the first, highest, and strongest pillar of truth, which reason builds 
through all ages, that, the biiman race has equal rights and duties. An universally 
educated country will always guarantee an easy going republic. As to France, it 
has less idolatrous spirit of caste, and consequently is more self-possessed of a 
manly appreciation of the jsrinciples of republicanism, than any other nation in 
Europe. Her people are proverbial for graceful, social manners, and a jovial, 
hilarious spirit. Proofs are, her various attempts at a republic, while every 
where else in Europe, ignorance, and strange to say including France — among 
280,000,000 of peojDle — and their want of all personal influence and power, in con- 
sequence, was hithertofore so iDitifully discernible that it could not much more than 
be thought of by them, far less be attempted with the remotest hope of success. 
Republicanism is altogether the personification of gentility. It is universal par 
excellence. The definition of that word is Freedom, is Christianity, is Masonry, is 
Odd Fellowship, etc. ; in short, is everything reasonable, good, enlightened, amia- 
ble and independent. In the United States of America every born American is a 
gentleman by the breath of liberty. The formal European finds it out in about a 
score of years; the poor, however, feel it upon landing that the Americans are not 
the only ones so born. In the meantime the aristocrat suffers dreadfully from 
ennui. Everybody labors but he: the effeminated or prejudiced European does not; 
at least not with that natural ease with which the born American performs that 
wisely ordained intellectual duty. by which he guards himself against sin, until the 
habits of the European are entirely changed by the ever-tossing wheel of time. 
Then only has he benefited by his travels, and then only does he stay where he is 
and is genteel. As labor, demanded by the physical condition of man, is a wise 
peremptory necessity, so it is destined to serve as the promoting power of virtue 
and morality, being the whetstone of the intellect, when obeyed in cheerfully and 
voluntarily, mentally or manually performed. It consequently creates that gentility 
which is but a double progress — an augmentation of the attributes of civilization 
andean increase of the Comfort and happiness to the individual being. 

The application of time constantly devoted to either mental or manual labor, 
leaving no room for a waste of energy from idleness and its degrading effects of 
slothful habits leads to the attainment of wealth. That there are among the 
40,000,000 Americans already more substantially wealthy individuals than can be 



91 

Fellow, thinks of forcing people into the union of brotherly love ! 
It might as well ask a grown up Apache, or a bigamist, or a criminal, 
or an habitual drunkard, or an infidel, or any other vicious or crazy 
element, to be their brother! No! If charity demands pity of man and 
nations in the sight of God, it likewise demands prudence not to 
expose a good cause to the infallible ruin from seduction by what 
is barbarous and fatal to it. Charit}^ strives, by all manner and 
means, to civilize and befriend man wherever he lives forlorn, in order 
that he msij appreciate freedom for his own and for the good of man- 
kind. 

found among 280,000,000 Europeans, is traceable onlj'^ to that fact of an universal 
love of voluntary individual labor, Avhicli is instigated by personal independence in 
a free and fabulously rich country. Such men always appreciate freedom, enjoy 
wealth, and live i)eaceably. Every gentleman is peaceable when he is at work. It 
includes a fearful courage at the same time, when he is disturbed at it. Attack a 
peaceable man, a peaceable nation, and the aggressor is either cut by the frown of 
independence and the etiquette of disgust ; or, if murderously inclined, suffers 
extermination forthwith. So it was in the war for the defense of the Union in 
America, and so it is now for the defense of the Union of Gei'many. Deplorjible as 
the cases are in this enlightened age, yet they admit of no alternative. Revenge is 
unknown, unforgiving heart's revenge. A civilized man governs himself, and 
never offends. The law is made for ungovernable men. Every gentleman lives 
M'ithin the boundary of deconim, therefore within the pale of law and decency. In 
the United States of America law is subordinate to the immense masses of gentle- 
men, who do not need it except as a guarantee for the comforts of life to be officially 
testified to. As to a fear of the law, it is not so understood in America at all. A 
gentleman fears nothing, averring rightly that fear is the consciousness of guilt — the 
remembrance of a bad action; a gentleman is never guilty of anything which might 
be called bad; he communes with God and governs himself before he acts, which 
leads to lawful and civilized actions^makes friends instead of enemies wherever he 
lives, which is sense well applied, and which education, good company, especially 
Ladies', and an appreciation of art, science, and the beauties of nature, develop in 
him. 



'^^:mm 



PART THE SEVENTH. 



WHY PEACE WAS NOT CONCLUDED AT SEDAN. 



The republicans, in other words, the entire unbiased civilized 
world, became at last convinced that the republic of France had bet- 
ter yield the two pi'ovinces to Germany, because these were, as 
already stated, of German origin, had been German propertj^ once 
summarily taken, had now in monarchical fashion been legitimately 
re-conquered, and by their population diminishing France and en- 
larging Germany, adjusted the physical strength of both nations upon 
a satisfactory equality absolutely necessary for the sake of future 
peace in Europe. The}- argued correctly that the republican cause 
had lost nothing by the cession, if considered that Germany to-day 
like Great Britain stands upon iiatellectual and moral grounds, dis- 
guisedly nearer the jprinciples of a legitimate, lawful, law-abiding and 
therefore permanent rej^ublic, flourishing in peace only, than France 
visibly does in spite of the latter, remaining ahead of both Germany, 
Great Britain with her colonies, as well as the entire remainder of 
nations upon the continent of Europe, with the only exception of 
Switzerland and Montenegro, because it is one to-day, and the others 
are not, which guarantees to a republic wherever it is in reality es- 
tablished, the symjsathy of the civilized world with the United States 
of America at their head, acknowledging its legitimacy. 

Viewed from this consistent point of view, the idleness of the 
SECOND AEGUMEXT agaiust the acquisition of Alsace and a portion 
of Lorraine is likewise exonorated and explained as follows: The 
two provinces conquered from Germany posterior to the foundation,* 
in due historical rotation, of the French monarchical power over the 
continent of Europe, as founded by Henry IV, within that period of 
his reign which dates from 1598 to 1610, and was possible only and 
consequent upon the decline of Spain at the time of the government 
of Lerma, and which French traditional power has been perpetuated 
as such through the three consecutive dynasties of the Bourbons, the 
Orleans and Napoleons, up to the 4th of September, 1870, when it 
was duly ceded to Imperial Germany by the force of this war — as to 
these two provinces republican France now says, it will not spare an 



93 

inch of territory. What does it mean ? Do they think the people 
of Alsace and Lorraine are consigned to perdition ? — are irredeema- 
bly lost to republicanism ? which principle embraces not only Ger- 
many, but mankind!! No. It means nothing less than that the 
Eepublic will continue -in the footsteps of the principles of mon- 
archy, power! and is not sure of its permanency, being harrassed by 
monarchical claimants and their troublesome adherents. Anyhow, 
it is very inconsistent and very unwise if considered that Germany 
never yet proved an aggressive spirit, nor that any monarchy ever 
yet dared to attack a legitimate republic, and in this case, Germany, 
a disguised republic as to comparative intelligence and fitness, and as 
such peaceably inclined towards all foreign nations, except those 
which shall withhold German non-republican elements from immedi- 
ate cession to the fatherland, gives as great a guarantee to Alsace and 
Lorraine for the future happiness of the prosperity of their popula- 
tion as France does. 

Monarchical Germany can wage Avar against those foreign nations 
only which call a Germanic population their own, as Austria, Russia, 
Holland, excluding Switzerland only, where the Germans are already 
living under a republican form of government, and need no prelimi- 
nary fostering and care, and which aforesaid nations shall refuse that 
liberal pay or exchange for their Germanic elements, which Germany 
is duty bound to prodigally offer for the sake of the fulfillment of 
her sacred duty to complete the union by gathering together her Ger- 
manic elements, but never will the Emperors of Germany wage war 
upon civilized nations with an anti-feudal aggressive design upon ter- 
ritory, and indulge in a Csesarian lust for barbarous conquests gen- 
erally. 

When thereupon the French republic argues: " You do not take 
the German Swiss from the republic of Switzerland, why do you take 
the German French from the republic of France '?"' The answer is, 
that if France to-day had Alsace and Lorraine, it would to-morrow 
forsake a third time the glorious republic and be monarchical touts 
suite, and as such would be unjustly unforgiving, war inclined as 
before, try as quickly as possible to recuperate, endeavor to form 
alliances with all Europe if possible, and march like locusts by mill- 
ions in balloons, with the white flag or the lily flowers pending, as 
the case may be, to Berlin as if nothing at all had lately happened. 
That explains it for the very good of the republic, why Emperor 
William did not already conclude peace at Sedan, because he could 
not get from the Republic of France those strategical points and 
lands necessary for the defence of Germany in case of a third over- 
throw of the republic. He had history as well as knowledge of the 
character of the monarchically inclined portion of the French peo- 



94 

pie to guide him, and although he proved by the acknowledgment 
of the rej)ublic, that politically he had confidence in its permanency, 
yet he had duties to perform towards German}^ which were peremp- 
tory in the face of the Bourbons and the Orleans being visibly about. 
He is by no means unamiable on that account, or at all a conqueror 
in a barbarous sense; if he was a second Barbarossa he would have 
conquered the whole of France at once, and kept it, instead of which, 
he was satisfied with the symbolical act of a centaurian gallop around 
the Arc of Triumph, like a man of principle and not of retaliation, 
in memory of his father, Frederick William III, and the entire Ger- 
many, balancing accounts with the shade of the first Napoleon, and 
then quietly retired without further noticing the captive one at Wil- 
helmshcelio. 

When, therefore, the Germans marched on from Sedan to Paris, 
and there around tlie Arc of Triulnph, to finish the conquest over the 
former general monarchial power of France, still smouldering in a 
warlike and revengeful republic, the sturdy architect of Germany did, 
simultaneously of time, a signal service, and a great deal of good to 
the republican cause, which it is obvious he must have had at heart, 
when he acknowledged the young republic born under his veiy eyes, 
weighing correctly the chance of her permanency against those of a 
disgraceful collapse as dearly a£fecting the peaceful growth of future 
Germany. It demonstrated confidence in the majorit}^ of the French 
nation, while it pointed to the olive branch of peace, which, abpve all, 
should be the greatest adornment upon the forehead of the Goddess 
of Liberty that they Republicans should not further resist as unworthy 
of their piinciples. 

Has ever a brave nation, or really a brave man, a good cause, a 
noble intention, been disgraced by defeat? Can, for instance, a 
republic like America ever be disgraced? By whom or by what? 
One should like to know. Has Christ not forgiven the very people 
whom he could not with his two hands, prevent killing him? So 
should every republican be as good as Christ, and every- man be a 
republican, until there is not a hand lifted to strike, which makes 
self-defense of the other unnecessary. That is why the civilized world 
are called Christians, that we should follow his example ; that, in case 
of helpless misery in life, of defeat, or even of death, ampng bar- 
barians, we V. possess that inner courage — fortitude, resignation, and 
faith — which is ready in a good conscience at all times to cling in the 
exquisitiveness of a loving caress to God, the Creator of the Universe, 
by whose inscrutable wisdom we at all here do live and die. Does 
man ever forget, or is so blind that he can't see, that he is God's son, 
as well as anybody that is and was created by His Grace ? That each 
tiny plant, each worm, lives by the same inscrutable grace only, for 



95 

purposes which are mysterious and yet are not ? That we live now 
while others lived in the remotest past ? What arrogates to man superi- 
ority over the brute creation ? Man's equally distributed possession of 
the divinity of an originally healthful reason, endowed with for the 
purpose of living happily himself, and to make others happy, while so 
living upon earth. Therefore, to act unreasonably, is to be cruel and 
bad, non-republican and warlike ; and no civilized being likes to thus 
stand degraded within himself before the great Creator. 

The world now acquiesces in the cession of those provinces, as the 
population of Alsace and Lorraine is not lost to republicanism, no more 
than we do consider the entire civilized world lost to it ; on the con- 
trary, it is steadily preparing for it as all mankind is plainly and rea- 
sonably redeemable to it. 

That by an augmentation of G-ermany the cause of republicanism in 
Europe should be retarded, because'Germany is as yet monarchial, is 
not dialectical, therefore unlogical and altogether wrong. The enmity 
of the cause of republicanism in Europe has disappeared, with the dis- 
closure of the Grermans acknowledging the Republic of France at the 
very moment of complete victory, generally so seductive an oppor- 
tunity for crowned 'heads to forget their vows, except in this glorious 
case of Emperor William. History has duly marked it that from now 
dynastical rules are no longer considered stringently necessary. It 
really and incontestably proves that Europe is far advanced in civil- 
ization ; it is constitutional ; therefore on the high road to republican- 
ism. It is, so to say, a political syllabus got rid of ; it is Protestant 
freedom, politically and nationally practically applied. It is in 
accordance with liberalism, as far as the imtutored millions are daily 
more quickly becoming reduced in numbers to digest it, and be thank- 
ful for it to G-od only. With the King of Prussia transmuting into an 
Emperor of Germany, and acknowledging the French Republic when 
he had it in his power to absorb the whole French country, all politi- 
cal hierarchy and infallibility to rule by especial divine right is left 
with the empty chrysalis. That act speaks volumes of rational hope for 
G-ermany itself ; it is a just tribute paid to the fact of the existence of 
enlightenment, and a constant increase of liberty in Germany ; it is 
.the unmistakable dawn of freedom. Thus reason wings itself etheri- 
ally high, throwing off all dogmatical restraint which hinder its flight 
within the realm of bliss, and lives not to conquer and to die, but to 
live and to love. With such a version of the condition of Germany 
and all Protestant monarchial countries, the third argument against 
the acquisition of Alsace and Lorraine is already principally refuted, 
which advanced the theory that the Roman Catholic religion would be 
assailed, as if religion was a terrestrial body, which could at all be 
slain. Roman Catholics have found out by this time that Protestant- 



96 

ism and Liberalism go there hand in hand at the same rate as Roman 
Catholicism and Liberalism go hand in hand in Italy. In the same 
proportion that beyond a constitutional monarchy a nation advances 
into the liighest order of civilization, the fitness for self-government, 
which are the republics all over the civilized world, so does religion 
advance to prepare the mind of civilized man to a direct pious com- 
munion with God. In republics it is precisely where Roman Catholics 
and Protestants hinder each other, if at all, then very harmlessly 
indeed, and certainly not politically, of any consequence. Their 
occasional hatred in this age is simply nonsensical, because it is not 
any more the offspring of ignorance and bigotry, but an old, decrepid 
habit which is. fast becoming exploded and extinct. It is on a par 
with the hereditarily difiused blue blood of aristocracy, which fears an 
inoculation from the lowly, forgetting that it is their crime of not 
having educated the masses, which criminal neglect created hitherto- 
fore all the insecurity, hatred, and general disobedience to law and 
order. Besides, Protestants and Roman Catholics have m'ore to do 
than to hate each other, when they reflect a little that far over half of 
mankind await their eloquent persuasion. 

Inasmuch as republicanism testifies to civilization and signifies it, 
so does Christianity strive to make proselytes among the nearly- treble 
number of heathens in Asia, Africa, and Oceanica, where Roman 
Catholics and Protestants pioneer hand in hand with this noble 
cosmopolitan purpose in view, of redeeming them to our faith. There 
is no heart so obdurate which woiiid not cease to hate when minutely 
reflecting upon the vulgarity of such antipathy and animosit^^ among 
Christian brethren, that it involuntarily reminds one of a poem by 
Tiedge, about a hundred years old, which always elates and edifies 
wherever and whenever it is read : 

PIETY . 

Alas! should'st from Thy grave 

Thoti greatest sufferer ! arise; 
Once more teaching, bent upon a stave, 

A wanderer through life, so wise! 
Should'st Thou behold the mischief all!! 

How they pervert the truth, this gift 
Of wisdom, plain, yet so beautiful, 

Flowed from your lips, the soul to lift! 
How they disdain all love's affection, 

Press persecution from Thy teachings, 
Which teach to love and bless upon reflection ! 

How they forget all tolerant doings, 
Which bear with faults, love what is good — 

And Thou, alas! dejected by contumely 
Up to thy very last in Cypress blood 

Hast exercised upon Thy murderers truly. 



97 

Thou would'st now shed a tear 

So bitter! — as ever from Thy mortal eyes 
Then fell upon the olive mount so dear. 

And shouid'st Thou here your teachings 
Yourself reveal — they would: these elves 

And pseudo exegetics hearken to proceedings, 
Who hear no one but themselves — 

Shouid'st Thou, however, dare to differ; 
Not do, as bid by their presumption. 

Not believe in Thee, except through their transfer — 
They would surely crucify you twice. 

Free schools to all liberally paid for by a government, acknowledged 
as the divine right of mankind to their heavenly dowry, " reason," 
which education enables them to further develop in active life for the 
purpose of being able to lead a happy and useful existence, and to 
cosmopolitanly appreciate republican life, as guaranteeing the inde- 
pendence of man while it rests upon the individual ability of piously 
revering the commands of G-od so obvious to that effect — is the first 
doctrine of civilization practically applied. 

The French nation hithertofore barricading the way of Germany to 
uniting her elements, had to be disabled by physical force of contin- 
uing it in the face of the degree of civilization attained to in the 19th 
century of the Christian era. The French had to be thoroughly dis- 
abled for that purpose; it was absolutely necessary, and one may as 
well assert, the will of heaven that the provocation to this war, which 
accomplished the union, should have been given by France. Now 
while the iron is hot, the Austrian Germans, the Russian Germans, 
and Holland ought at once to return to their original national allegi- 
ance; the quicker it is now enforced by Germany, the better, for 
France recuperated, unless she remains rejoublican, might ally with 
Austria and Russia for the same vainglorious purpose of conquest as 
of yore. But if fourteen millions of Austrian Germans, together 
with all the other non-republican German elements outside of Ger- 
many, as that country to-day shows its configuration of forty millions, 
are added to it, then peace is permanently established in all Europe, 
and with the rise of another generation the Germanic race in Europe 
may be predicted shall be republican. In the meantime Germany 
and England unite to allow education to take a deep root, and what- 
ever revolutionary disturbances may take place in Europe, they will 
rightly pronounce them premature, and take care of the north of 
Europe. United Italy, on the other hand, will take care of the south 
of Europe, being now unmolested by France — a republic — so that 
Spain and Portugal, together with the rest of the south of Eurojpe, 
may" not be disturbed in their earnest strides for progress. Republi- 
can France is equivalent to peace. Every republic is equivalent to it, 
11 



98 

On the other hand, nobody will dispute in Germany and England 
that the love of country is sacred; but to say, to prefer a monarchi- 
cal government to a republican, and to try to prove it, that life and 
property, law and order, are safer and greater, would show an effem- 
inacy of manhood, which is quite unnatural to any sensible being, 
and has but one parallel — that of a rich bachelor, or amiable maiden 
Lady to make the world believe they live haj)pier in their single 
blessedness than if they were married, as if they knew anything at 
all about it. Again, take a Avidower or widow Lady deprived of his or 
her playmate by death or lawful divorce, and observe how quickly 
they again embrace matrimony at all hazards. So it is exactly with 
an intelligent and moral man who once has lived in a republic, and 
should change his domicil and again live in a monarchical country; 
how he yearns until he has returned to the republic. As to the Uni- 
ted States of America, there is not a man who ever lived in sunny 
California is absent abroad upon some occasion or other, who would 
not readily exchange the world for his. lovely Eureka. 

One of the most potent reasons why the remainder of the civilized 
world acquiesced in the cession of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany, 
was besides the impossibility of preventing it by force, the justice of 
the case itself, which clearly demanded it. The idea to deprive a 
victor of his booty, after the entire Germany had been exposed to the 
chances of ruin, and had to offer upon the altar of Liberty a life, a 
human life, of greater value than the universe, and more than that, 
tens of thousands of such sacred lives, ignorant people only could 
have harbored, or worse than ignorance of theirs that Germany, which 
had just now positively proved a sagacity and strength greater than 
any continental nation in Europe j)0ssesses, could so have been reck- 
less and soft as to leave a conquered country empty-handed, and all 
out of womanish mercy and sickly sentimentality, knowing, as all the 
world does, that thereby it would have actually encouraged France 
to a repetition of the same sort of intent to at an early convenience 
invade Germany as in 1870. Better ask a tiger to give you back the 
lamb; war is barbarous and conducts itself as such, vice versa. 

This gandering arose at Sedan, and continued at Paris (beautiful 
Paris, a third of which demolished by exasperated French citizens) 
that Germany could afford to be magnanimous and abstain from 
humiliating France. Of course she could, but see France five years 
hence, as hinted before, resume the same business of fiightening* 
peaceable nations. No ! the Bowie-knives had to be kept ; leave 
France to-day as strong as Germany, and there is never any peace. 
For that reason Germany now adds all her Germanic elements, dom- 
ineered over by foreigners, for the purpose of being not only equal 
but stronger than France, in order to arrive at a permanent European 



99 

peace. It is then immaterial, in a strictly political jDoint of view, 
whether France remains true to the present republic or not. 

As Germany does not aggress for purposes of conquest, surely 
France cannot he parceled out like helpless Poland. So Germany 
took pay in those two provinces, and Metz as the key to the European 
powder magazine of wars, for no other reason than duty to the Ger- 
man fatherland. 

This action, was, therefore, never intended to humiliate France, no 
more than the First Napoleon ever intended humiliating Germany 
by overrunning the whole country. It is by no means retaliation, 
which is as unchristianly as war itself, but simply proves that war 
lurks in ambush, and that the Christian disciple is insincere.* 

Germany acts, therefore, extremely wise, if she continues to absorb 
all Germanic elements throughout Europe, for the one purpose, and 
'as swiftly as possible : to outnumber France in population, as France 
might forsake the Republic, for the third time, and again go to war. 

* Eatlier should man ensnare the strong lion and rhinoceros and other felines and 
pachyderms living upon earth, although even those cannot be exterminated because 
they are there and eminently dangerous — no more than the most destructive arms 
can .exterminate war, despotism and revenge; the guillotine aristocrats, or a Bar- 
tholomew's night, the Protestants. The weapon successfully wielded against fury, 
injustice and intolerance is equal knowledge. It is by reason that man and nations 
shall govern himself and themselves, and overcome difficulties as God points to the 
aforesaid physically thousand-fold stronger creation that it shall be so. 

Look upon the street, and you will find the divine nationality of the race — the 
promiscuous multitude of human beings of equally puny height within an inch or 
two, as being equally destined by God to live socially, contentedly and hopefully in 
the world. It is the clue to the truth that the rights of man are the same which 
knowledge — the developed reason — explains and duly expounds. You will find 
them following each other through this life like monkeys crossing a stream, co con- 
tinue u]Don the other side in safety and harmony. That swarth for man is wisdom 
—to live peaceably everywhere and enjoy life socially. It is reason fully developed. 
It is the Eden found upon earth; the lee-side of the storm of war and individual 
passion. It — is — wisdom —how — to — live. 

As God gives life, he takes it — and nobody else dare. 



-^^%^|fi5^S 



PART THE EIGHTH. 



THE CAPITULATION 0¥ STKASBUKG AND METZ.— NAVAL 
ENGAGEiMENTS. 



The province of Alsace and the German portion of Lorraine -were 
therefore added to German}-, and Strasburg and Metz taken, as per- 
emptorily necessary for future safety. The fortress of Strasbui'g, so 
bravel}^ defended by its commander, General Uhrich, from the 11th 
of August, yielded the keys on the 28tli of SejDtember, at last. Nei- 
ther the investment nor a dreadful bombardment, which unfortun- 
ately devastated a large portion of the city, with its columns and 
treasures of arts, proved of avail to induce the heroic General Uhrich 
to surrender. A regular assault had to be made before success 
crowned the heroic efforts of the great German General von Werder. 
Hoisting the white flag to the world renowned Strasburg Cathedral, 
at the immense height of 480 feet, it being the 27th of September, 
1870, reminded Germany of how, 198 years ago, that celebrated city 
was torn from the German empire by France. The day of that anni- 
versary, the 27th Sept., 1870, the fortress mournfully caj)itulated. A 
month later the energy and perseverance of the German troops were 
likewise and equally brilliantly recompensed by the success before 
Metz. After having nine long weeks invested the place, apparently 
an invulnerable one, suffering hunger and cold, and exposed as a 
target to a deadly fire of grape, and having repelled those energetic 
assaults of Bazaine's', which he ventured on even after the battles of 
Noisseville, of Peltre, of Mercy, of St. Eemy, and at. last of Woippy, 
on the 7th of .October, which latter lasted nine hours; then it was at 
that critical moment that the misery of the besieged becoming an ally of 
the Germans, induced the proud Marshal, with 173,000 men, to capit- 
ulate. At the castle Frescaty, on the 27th October, 1870, this, event 
received its historical signature, and the second French army corps, 
like the first one, was sent into captivity to Germany, So the laurels 
faded which. Bazaine, the victor of San Puebla, had not long since 
usurped in Mexico, while Prince Frederick Charles had patriotically 
gathered new ones at Metz, in France, similarly to the Crown Prince 



101 

of Prussia, the victor of Orleans, liad gathered his, both receiving the 
rank of Field-Marshal Generals, as memento mori in due conse- 
quence of their services to the German nation, and the well deserved 
sincere thanks besides. 

Less prominent than were the successes on terra firina, yet not 
without importance to Germany, were those at sea, in the memorable 
summer and fall of 1870. General Vogel von Falckenstein, having 
been appointed Governor-General of all the lands upon the German 
coast, issued, on the 24th of July, a demand for volunteers to join 
the marine. Then torpedoes were laid and the coast properly forti- 
fied to prevent the possible landing of the enemy, and the little Ger- 
man fleet lay ready at Kiel and Wilhelmshaven to cope, to the best of 
its ability, with the by far stronger one of the French, relying some- 
what upon the ignorance of the French of the geography of the coasts 
of the North sea and the Baltic. Strange to say, the I'rench fleet was 
really unsuccessful. Barely two engagements deserve mention : the 
one off the island Buegen, and the other off Weichsolmuende, 
the harbor of Danzig upon the Yistula. In the West Indes, off the 
Moro of Havana, the German gun-boat "Meteor" preserved the 
honor of the German flag in a bout .with the " Bouvet." The Ger- 
man ships " Grille," and " Nymphe," had done similar brave acts in 
the German waters. 

In the meantime, the second period of the siege of Paris had com- 
menced to develop) itself against the Republic of France. 

On the 19th of September, the larger portion of the German armies 
had reached Paris in forced marches, forming a huge and strong gir- 
dle of some forty odd English miles in extent around the city, which 
the statesman under Louis Phillippe, the venerable Thiers, had once 
metamorphosed into one of the strongest fortresses upon the globe. 
It was about that time that peace appeared near at hand, for suddenly 
the President of the French Bepublic, Monsieur Jules Favre, appeared 
at the German headquarters, soliciting an interview with Count Bis- 
marck respecting the chances for an armistice. But their auspices 
were not good, and the non-republican conduct of the French at the 
time, of not yielding what was demanded by common sense and 
equity, and had and should be granted to the Germans as victors, 
frustrated their accomplishment. This political blunder on the part 
of the young republic has already been explained at large upon pre- 
vious Images. Suffice here once more to say that the world at large 
approved the cession of territory for the purpose of the equalization of 
the military strength of the two nations, and a payment of five mil- 
liards of francs for damages besides, for what, in fact, cannot be at 
all I'ef unded : the divine lives of human beings, having died by thou- 
sands, contrary to civilization. Therefore, war continued, and more 



102 

sanguinary in proportion to the resistance offered than before. In 
fact, all France arose and followed Gambetta, to try what ^vas neither 
wisdom nor republicanism, but savored much of hatred and revenge 
instead of patriotism. Besides, as might have been foreseen, it proved 
unavailing. 

The damage done by the French to France in these national eftbrts, 
in the way of destruction of roads and property, was a severe lesson 
to the young republic for having disgraced the sacred republican doc- 
trine of peace, having parliamentary ways at her disposal to force 
Thiers to leave. The excuse for self-defense on their part was inad- 
missible, because the Germans had been found ready to accept peace 
against being paid for what was fair, and besides were known as not 
harboring an}^ intention whatever of an opprobrious kind, as touching 
the independence of France. As to the frantic fury of the French, in 
trying to prevent the organized German armies of co]itinuiug their 
besieging operations before Paris, it was, as might have been exijected, 
ineffectual. 






THE SIEGE OF PAKIS, AND THE BATTLES AGAINST THE 
AEMY OF THE LOIEE. 



General Troehu having been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the 
besieged forces within the walls of Paris, by the Eepublican Govern- 
ments at Paris and at Tours, had an army of at least 350,000 men 
under his command, inclusive of National and Guards Mobile. The 
numerous and good artillery within the forts consisted mostly of 
marines. Scarcely had the Germans completed their investment, 
when the sorties of the French commenced, demanding incessant 
attention on the part of the Germans. The latter, however, soon 
made their work in a manner thorough, that, after destruction of the 
subterranean telegraph lines, the French had no other way of com- 
municating from Paris with outside France than by balloon, which 
was rather an out-of-the-way mode of communicating, on account of 
accidents from shots of the enemy, and also under circumstances 
of being so very uncertain. After the King of Prussia had moved 
his headquarters to Versailles, the residence of Louis XIV, the 
sorties of the French became often — ostensibly to exercise the troops, 
but intentionally to break through the enemy's lines. On the 7th 
October they pressed towards Malmaison ; on the loth towards 
St. Cloud, which latter castle was destroyed by their own grape from 
Mount Valerien, and on the 15th towards Villejuif . The battle on 
the 21st October, near Malmaison, in the presence of King William, 
was very severe, as were those near Le Bourget, on the 28th and 30th 
October, which place had to be stormed by the Prussian Guards in 
the most heroic manner, signifying severe losses of the latter in offi- 
cers and men. 

The month of November went off comparatively quiet, because the 
newly-formed provincial armies had to receive their first teachings 
from the mythological Mars ; the forts, however, keeping up a lively 
but expensive cannonade, which resulted in a dead German costing 
France about 80,000 francs. 

Gambetta had gone early in October, by balloon, to Tours, to there 
organize three new armies, known as the army of the Loire. The 



104 

venerable Garibaldi, the celebrated General of Italy, appeared among 
them, and, with his two sons, took command. But the defense, 
nevertheless, degenerated into a guerilla warfare, in spite of the 
remonstrances of Garibaldi, through the formation of bands of 
Franc-Tireurs, or sharpshooters, who, lying in ambush, like at Ablis 
and Chatillon, tried hard to decimate the gallant Prussians, l:)y mur- 
dering them. It was, therefore, luck, indeed, for the Germans that 
Metz fell into their hands the latter part of October, which enabled 
them to send a great army against them to silence them forthwith. 
Part of the entire army of the Germans remained before Paris, the 
other under Prince Frederick Charles and the Grand Duke of Meck- 
lenburg, was directed to operate against the army of the Loire. Thus, 
the battles of the Germans against the French Republic were fought 
by three armies stationed : the first, easterly, south of Alsace, the sec- 
ond along the River Loire, and the third in the North of France. 

After Strasburg had capitulated, General von Werder bad the com- 
mand assigned to him over the Eastern army, consisting of Baden 
troops and Prussians, with whom he cleared Alsace the first half of 
October, in the skirmishes at Champenai, Nompatelize, Epinal, and 
other places, leaving nothing of weight but the strong fortress in the 
mountains named Belfort, the siege* of which was commenced later 
on the 8th of November. Upon this. General von Werder, reinforced 
by the reserve army of General Lowenfeld, advanced south upon the 
Eastern army, under General Cambriels, and upon the Garibaldians. 
The first he vanquished in the fight at Oignon Lake, and the latter 
he drove out of Gray, invested Dijon, (Burgundy) Monfcbeliard, and 
Dole, and then spread his operations toward the west, the upper i^art 
of the River Seine. On the 22d November, the General was attacked 
by the Garibaldians, at Nuits, who felt somewhat more confident 
since their surprise at Chatillon. He stood it bravely, so that when 
a few days later the venerable hero. Garibaldi, repeated the attack, 
near Pasques, trying to cii'cumgo his location near Dijon, he, the 
commander of Strasburg memory, scattered the Garibaldians on the 
26th and 27th November. 

Now succeed the battles in the south, the great battle-field of this 
war, which occurred from October 1870 to January 1871. These were 
indeed the most difficult, complicated and laborious of the whole 
campaign. Already in September raids of cavalry had been made 
against the army of the Loire down towards Orleans. In the early 
part of October the Bavarian General von der Tann, reinforced by 
the Crown Prince of Prussia, marching their respective armies south 
and engaging the enemy in victorious battles at Toury, Etampes and 
Artenay, forced the latter to retreat towards Orleans. That city they 
stormed on the 12th of October, after an engagement of nine hours. 



105 

which sent the French across the Loire. Shortly afterwards, north 
of Orleans, General von Wittich annihilated a French army at 
Chateaudun, and taking the city, invested Ghartres on the 21st of 
October. Towards the end of that month the German armies in the 
south, especially those under Prince Charles, had been largelj^ in- 
creased after Toul, Soissons and Metz had been taken, and the end 
of the war supposed to be near at hand. Such was, however, not the 
case. The energy of Gambetta must have been of an enormity truly 
admirable, although it was not wisely conceived, for not only did he 
manage to largely increase the army of the north, under Bourbaki, 
the army of the west under Keratry, and the army of the Loire under 
Aurelles de Paladine, but he put the same on a regular war footing. 
The latter General, who had already early in November more than 
80,000 men under his command, tried now to cut off the Bavarians at 
Orleans, he having a vastly superior force at his disposal, and if suc- 
cessful, to reach Paris forthwith; circumstances favored him so far 
that General von der Tann had to give up Orleans, and after the fight 
at Coulmieres had to retire upon Toury, although the Grand Duke of 
Mecklenburg had put to flight part of the army under Keratry, on 
the 17th of November, near Dreux, and General von Wittich had 
forced back a second portion of the enemy's army upon Chateauneuf . 
Matters stood thus doubtful, when Prince Frederick Charles came to 
the rescue, and thoroughly routing Paladine on the 28th of Novem- 
ber at Beaune la Kolande, while on his way to Paris, prevented a 
serious conflict, for General Trochu, informed of the intention of 
Paladine, made those energetic sorties at Brie and Champ igny on the 
30th of November, and 2d of December, respectively, in consequence 
of which history has taken note that these have been unfortunately 
very sanguinary'', but nevertheless were repulsed. Simultaneously 
with these events General Manteuffel cut off the north army under 
Bourbaki, preventing it from reaching Paris, by defeating it at Amiens. 
In spite of all these disasters the French were by no means discom- 
fited. Dismissing Aurelles de Paladine, and gathering the disheveled 
masses, (which Prince Charles in the meantime had promptly pursued, 
retaking Orleans on the 4th of December) under General Chanzy, in 
the west, and under Bourbaki in the east, it had been shrewdly 
decided to intrust the army of the north to the most intelligent gen- 
eral of France, General Faidherbe, as ceded to him by General Bour- 
baki. The French army was now divided into two commands, in- 
stead of as formerly into three. General Chanzy endeavored to stay 
the advance of Prince Charles upon Tours, which city, the Govern- 
ment fancying defeat possible, had wisely quitted in time, and 
adjourned to Bordeau:s:, but was defeated a second time in battles 
lasting four days — from the 7th to the 10th of December — at Beau- 
12 



106 

gency aud Marclienoir, retiring towards le Mans (Orleannais). The 
iron Prince, together with the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg, contin- 
uing their pursuit, chased the French out of Veudome on the 15th of 
December, and took possession of the whole line from le Mans to 
Tours. Not, however until January, after many skirmishes had taken 
place, was the army of the west thoroughly beaten. The battle of le 
Mans (province Orleannais) lasting four days, finished Chanzy and 
the army of the west. The severity of the winter had assisted the 
Germans as it did of yore the Russians against the first Napoleon, 
besides the Germans are, as were then the Russians, used to such 
horrid cold weather — France, therefore, could not be saved in that 
direction. As to the second chance : the army of the north under 
Faidherbe had to succumb to the superior vigor of the Generals Man- 
teuffel and von Goeben, although the former. General Manteuffel, 
had had to evacuate St. Quentin (Picardie) after having invested 
Rouen, the great manufacturing town upon the River Seine, famous 
for its iron works, and Dieppe, a small seaport. Yet he managed to 
throw the army of the north, fully 00,000 strong, upon Arras, after 
the French had suffered a second defeat near Amiens (Picardie) on 
the 23d of December, two days before Christmas. 

General Faidherbe, nothing daunted, tried it once more, early in 
January, to attack General Manteuffel, but the Germans stood the 
brunt well near Bapaume, on the 2d and 3d Januar}^ 1871. General 
Manteuffel, upon being transferred to a command in the East, General 
Goeben took charge of the German army of the North. He, likewise, 
was attacked by Faidherbe off Cambray, but the Germans repulsed 
him a thii'd time in a battle near St. Quentin, (prov. Picardie) which 
lasted seven hours, and this time in a manner which was equivalent to 
a rout. 

While all this took place, Paris having now been invested over three 
months, yet unwilling to give up the keys of the city, having managed 
to get at sufficient food some way or another, and being determined to 
resist to the last, approached its fall. From the 19th to the 22d 
December, General Trochu debouched, but without success. The 
German artillery at last did the work effectively ; it destroyed the 
strong position of the French upon Mount Avron on the 27th and 
and 28th December, and on New Years day 200 cannon sent the molten 
gifi^s of Vulcan into Paris and the forts, with compliments from 
General v. Kameke and the Prince of Hohenlohe. Paris was para- 
lyzed. Once more, on the 19th January, the French tried it near 
Mount Valerien, but were again defeated under the very eyes of 
Emperor William of Germany. General Trochu had now to leave 
his command, and President Favre appeared, on the 24th January, at 
the headquarters of the Germans at Versailles, to negotiate for a sur- 



107 

I'ender. Paris then liad been in a state of mutiny. At midnight of 
27th January firing ceased. Next day the armistice was agreed to, to 
last three weeks, which handed Paris over to the Gei-mans after a 
siege of four weeks. From said armistice, however, the Eastern bat- 
tlefield was excluded. 

A constitutional assembly was formed at Bordeaux, which should at 
once decide upon the future form of G-overnment, in order to be ena- 
bled to make peace. 

The 18th January, 1871, had its especial significance. The King of 
Prussia had been, on the 16th December, 1870, unanimously declared 
Emperor of Glermany by the German Reichstag, after a proposal by 
the King of Bavaria, on the 9th December, 1870, to all the German 
Princes and free cities of Germany. On the 18th January the victorious 
Emperor celebrated the historical event in Versailles, only seventy 
years after the Kingdom of Prussia had at all been founded. 

The month of January was likewise decisive in the East. There 
stood Garibaldi with his vokmteers, reinforced by the new army of 
Lyons, under command of General Bourbaki, whom Gambetta wished 
to throwback the weaker numerical strength of Werder, should retake 
Belfort, (Alsace) and march into Northern Germany. Good ! the 
idea was by no means bad, for danger there was ; therefore the Ger- 
mans quickly sent aid to "Werder, by the 2d and 7th army corps, 
as he had to retire before overwhelming forces from Dijon upon 
Vesoul, in order to cover Belfort. But even before all these auxiliary 
troops were upon the spot, the heroic Werder had repulsed Bourbaki, 
in a three days' fight at Montbeliard, which forced him to retire to 
Besangon. 

The second plan of the French to unite with Garibaldi was likewise 
frustrated. The brave General was attacked at Dijon by the 61st 
Regiment, and had to remain there, which enabled the 2d army cor]DS 
to arrive unobserved, and place itself between the two combatting 
armies, and in a manner that, with Werder, surrounded the entire 
French army under Bourbaki. There was then no other alternative 
left for the latter but to either surrender or retire into Switzerland. 
On the 1st February, at Sombacourt and Frasne, Bourbaki fought 
desperately and lastly, but he was thoroughlj^ defeated, and his de- 
moralized army had to disarm before the Swiss General Herzog. 

The celebrated, and very bravely defended fortress of Belfort, in 
Alsace, capitulated, on the 16th February, with free egress of its brave 
garrison. 

The eight months are gone — the war finished ! What horrors ! and 
yet how small the hojie that it has been the last. May the Omnipotent 
console those loving mothers, sisters, wives, and brides. Man cannot, 
nothing on earth can ; not a deluge of tears could. May he send to 



108 

us all a genius, who shall kuoAV how to prevent bloodshed among 
civilized nations ! — since everybody reads the Bible, and nobody fol- 
lows the doctrine of peace. 

When it is asserted that in 180 days 156 fights, and 17 more or less 
battles occurred, that 26 fortresses more or less strong were stormed, 
373,000 prisoners made, 6,700 pieces of artillery taken, and 120 
standards and other military emblems were conquered ; that these 
astounding victories gave back to Germany what is hers, Alsace and 
the German part of Lorraine, together with Metz, and reimbursed the 
nation for the costs of the war with about 1,300,000,000 thalers, equiv- 
alent to five millards of francs, and enlarged Germany to 9,900 square 
German miles (a German mile is about equal to 4-^ English miles), 
with a population of 40,000,000 uj)on it, and divided into twenty-five 
States, then it may be rightly supposed that the peace made at Frank- 
fort-on-the-Maiu is based ui)on the physical impossibility of France 
of ever again attempting to disturb it. 

Setting aside the moral improbability of the republic of France, 
so far forgetting her advance in civilization as to again fall back into 
the fetters of monarchical ride, it is a national and sacred duty in- 
cumbent upon Germany, to propose without delay to Austria and 
Russia the cession of the German provinces upon the most liberal 
terms, at the same time peremptorily insisting upon compliance with 
such a natural and patriotic demand. It is supposed that nearly 
twenty millions of population of German origin are living under for- 
eign monarchical rule. There can be no peace until these have re- 
turned to their national allegiance; besides, an alliance might be 
arranged at any future time between recuperated France (should it not 
remain republican) Russia and Austria, as it is so easy to tear to pieces 
what blood upon battlefields has cemented, and monarchs dispute 
anew. As monarchy signifies war, and the republic peace, and the 
one is based upon j)hysical and the other upon moral strength, so 
does it appear as extremely unlikely that peace can be ax)plied to 
Europe as long as Germany is not among monarchical nations the 
highest power of physical strength. Bound as she is then to meta- 
morphose herself into a correctly acting republic, she is, at least, up 
to that time a bulwark of force and a tower of strength against Aus- 
tria, Russia and France, should the latter prove a sham and undue 
the republic. As this last hypothesis is now unlikely, as France takes 
a high rank as a rej)nblic, having succeeded in quieting the rebellion, 
Germany will easily manage with Austria, Russia, etc., either peacea- 
bly or by war. 

But their Germans must belong to the general nation at all hazards, 
and upon any condition. It is the great desideratum of the age, the 
centralization of the nationalities. It is done in the interest of civil- 



109 

ized mankind; it will accelerate age by age the promulgation of the 
commands of God, who created neither nations nor countries, but 
the independent being upon the one land of the earth. France, at 
present impotent, and as a republic, unwilling — Great Britain the 
natural ally of Germany in case of war with Russia, Austria and the 
remainder of European nations — v>^ar will not be resorted to on that 
account, and the Germans be released against any amount of money 
and non-Germanic territory. 

As to Poland, she has a more natural future among the broad Scla- 
vonic race which it is the destiny of Austria to henceforth gather; 
and as to Russia, she has a similar one from among the more dis- 
persed and heterogeneous nationalities of the entire northern Asia.* 

The world wishes France well; it is fully aware of her misfortune; it 
has ascertained abroad what her grief is at home. The Nouvelliste 
in Rouen, repeating the words of the novelist, Alexander Dumas, 
who acquainted the world with the grief of France in the following- 
touching passage, says: "For the moment it's clear, that the invasion 
has conquered and muddled us, that the rebels have cleaned us out 
and dishonored us, that the country has lost tv/o of its most beautiful 
provinces, that the most elegant third of Paris is in ruins, that the 
capital of the civilized world has proved again in 1871 what it did in 
1793, viz., that it stands always at the disposal of horror, and that 
our people possess the same qualifications as Kings do, viz., to learn 
nothing from misfortune. Public disasters, private misery, irrepar- 
able losses of life, of inspiration, of love, of hope, of luck, of labox', 
of faith, an enormous foreign debt, a senseless one at home, humilia- 
tion, disheartedness, doubt, apprehension, gloom, high and low, and 
everywhere gloom, dispersion of families, dissolution of parties, a rout 
of princij)les, iind especially a double current ; of an instinctively 



* The world has a right to exchange opinions in regard to the future of nations, 
which have undergone a radical change either in prosperity or adversity. It is es- 
pecially inclined to v/ish well to the unfortunate as in accordance with the tower- 
ing principles of civilization. It is one of its most ennobling traits to be charitable. 
As in individuals, so in nations, to sympathize with the afflicted and to be always 
ready to stretch out the helping hand to the needy without waiting to be called 
iijjon so to do, shows the true disciple of Christ, ap]Diies practically the finger sign 
of heaven, so feelingly illustrated by the act of the Samaritan, as the sweetest nutri- 
ment to the living soul upon earth. The greater the delicacy with which these 
heavenly inspirations lead to the act of charity, the more the donor prevents the 
blood mantling upon the cheeks of the helpless recipient — the more delightful is the 
moment of ineffable bliss of having done one's duty in a grandly religious manner, 
and the more visibly does Providence reward him upon the spot. As it is at the 
same time the equally distributed chance to all of heavenly wealth, it proves that 
the principle of benevolence is the developing element of gentility and general civ- 
ilization, planted by education, and germinated by religion. 



110 

double need of reprisals and rest ; of retaliation aud resignation, of 
hatred and love ; that is, in a few -svords, onr situation at this hour." 
And, j)ossibly, it is ; but France is not lost no more than a gentleman 
is. A mind full of faith, repentance, energy, and health, lives ; it 
views crucification as purification ; it draws strength from defeat, and 
fortitude from sorrow ; it is the sunlit-smiling earth after the raven 
blackness of a tempestuous night ; it is, above all, a momentarily 
clearer conception of the hope of an eternally blissful hereafter, as 
powerfully convinced of by the inimitable existence of life, of the mo- 
ment in so grand and obviously perishable a world in common with 
us, awaiting the further will of Heaven, to continue altogether, and 
thus realize the purpose of creation. 

France is a rej^ublic, and Dumas is too severe when he says she has 
learned nothing from misfortune; she has learned a great deal: she 
has learned to conquer the rebels, what she didn't know when she 
allowed Napoleon III to forsake the republic scarcely twenty years 
ago, which proves that there are to-day far more enlightened men in 
France than ignorant ones. In whatever country that is the case, 
freedom is permanently at hand. Educate! educate! continue to edu- 
cate every child living, and pay for it b}'' law, and you Vvdll strengthen 
the republic and uproot vice upon this earth, circumgo the intoxicated 
profligate gambling parent (the cause in all countries of the growth of 
vice in children), crime and wars ! Education and peace live upon 
reason and love; their strength cements the union and the universe, 
and social life becomes not only bearable, in a rigorous conventional 
point of view, but shows its divine nature ; as men approach each 
other naturally, the All-wise wills it that there should be no distinc- 
tion except the sweet rivahy of how to add to the usefulness and hap- 
piness of one another, until the moment of life, which is in God's 
hand, is by Him recalled. France has leveled these distinctions, by 
force upon Napoleon, disowning his vows to the republic, and be per- 
mitted so to do, instead of like Washington standing by the side of 
the people and be forever beloved. Great Britain, Germany and 
Italy will level them peaceably. France — the Gallic race — is impetu- 
ous; the Teutons are not; they await all the effects of universal edu- 
cation upon the worth of man to appreciate freedom quietly and 
resignedly. Their govermental heads at least mean well or else the 
world had to despair of their sincerity ; they change the diet of the 
patient in proportion to his convalescence. They await the arising of 
the million in the terrestrial garden of free air and liberty with joy 
and hope, as every physician does who is not a charlatan, and can 
premise the time of convalescence as far as stud}^ goes, and the Al- 
mighty's heavenly will in the case commences. 



Ill 

Although France is a republic, and as such synonymous of peace, 
and has proved her inner strength by the subjugation of .her improp- 
erly educated brethren, yet she may as well remember for a while 
longer the significant words of Picard in his proclamation of the 27th 
of February, announcing the entry of the German troops into Paris, 
The confused monarchical spirit among some incorrigible minds, is 
still a heavy incubus upon an easy-going young republic, setting aside 
the customary dynastically selfish attempts of the three dynasties 
plotting an entry, to either one of which it would be idle to suppose 
for a moment that the French nation would forget itself so far as to 
listen. Picard said, "We conclude peace with the expectation of 
" future retaliation," at least many so said with more or less distinc- 
tiveness, and many French who do not say it think so bej^ond 
doubt. It would be difficult to teach those who jDushed the war, liv- 
ing upon glory and brooding over the chances of enlarging the terri- 
tory of the country, to henceforth think otherwise. This great 
knowledge of the character of many, guided Bismarck in asking 
proper security for peace in the shape of territory belonging to the 
republicans. To continue the war to the knife was as unwise of the 
republic as it was impolitic and useless. Has ever a sensible man 
doubted the bravery of a Frenchman ? Of what use was, then, an 
idle attempt to struggle with the giant of fate ? All it did it showed 
lack of wisdom. To cope with impossibilities, is to compare man, frail 
as he is, struggling in the grasp of a pachyderm. If the French made 
peace upon this comparison, and not for wisdom's sake, then they are 
really to be pitied, for there are three realities, which are as clear as 
daylight, that they cannot regain — what they have once lost — as Ger- 
many is too intelligent to idle and vegetate upon war laurels. It is 
ahead of France now, and will labor to so continue. 




PART THE TENTH. 



THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE WAR UPON FUTURE CIVIL- 
IZATION. 



Above all this war lias demonstrated to France the complete mili- 
tary superiority of Germau3\ France possesses really better small 
arms ; but the great physical strength of the soldier, the more thorough 
organization of the armj', and the better discipline and the superiority in 
moral qualities, has everywhere been acknowledged has given victory to 
the Germans. Those are, indeed, superiorities which cannot be easily 
acquired, even in a long time, especially if the national character and 
pubHc affairs are not exactly favorable to the performance of exploded 
war measures; viz., upon universal military service France is not 
likely to decide, on account of its principles of republicanism. 

France has no inclination for this earnest exercise of military duty. 
A preponderance of physical strength is, therefore, put out of reach. 
The French people diminish slightly in j^hysical strength, as this war 
has evidently shown. Increase of popidation advances much slower 
in France, in percentage, than it does in Germany. The ex- 
haustion in France of disposable men took place quicker during 
this war than it could be possible among the Germans , setting aside 
that the French enlisted old men and small youth promiscuously. 
Besides, in a few years from now, after the Prussian system of the 
organization of the army shall have been adopted by all Germany, 
both North and South, Germany shall have far more numerous armies 
than at present. The times are not yet such as to disband soldiers 
and make working men out of them. The Rhine is not quite so broad 
as the Atlantic ! This alone will make the French think twice before 
they overthrow the republic and commence a dynastical war. 

The second reality is the changed boundary and the new constitu- 
tion of Germany. The boundaries of German}' hithertofore, as good 
as if they stood widely open, together with the political separation of 
the South from the North, were a great seduction for France under 
either of the three dynasties to wage war with her German neighbors. 
To-day Germany has finely locked boundaries, and stands united to a 
man against the combined continent of Europe. 



113 

Wliat must be her security of peace to Europe wheu the foreign 
non-republican Germans are added to the Union ! Then she may force 
Europe to disarm, and be the first to do it. 

The third reality is the financial impossibility. In the French 
Budget for 1870, the interest of the national debt absorbed already 
twenty-four per cent, of the entire income ; army and navy, twenty- 
eight per cent. At present, the costs of the war, so it was stated at 
Bordeaux, footed up three and a half millards of francs, besides the 
five millards which she has to -paj to Gevm.-a.iLij. At five per cent, this 
enormous debt of eight and a half millards of francs adds to itself 
annually 425,000,000 of francs. The ease with which she lately i^aid 
the first installment of the debt to Germany, although it proves propor- 
tionately large wealth, and but little impaired credit, yet is the dam- 
age done by the rebels fearfully great, nor was the destruction of 
property, both private and public, by any means small, which the 
French in their eagerness to defend Paris, rashly considered neces- 
sary to destroy, in order to keep ofi" the enemy. Likewise the lost 
material of war, during the campaign, upon both battle-fields, as well 
as in the fortresses, has been of note. As all this will be felt for 
many years to come, France cannot retaliate even if she was not repub- 
lican ; she has, therefore, to reduce the expenses of the army and 
navy, which, in 1870, comprised about 590,000,000 francs, and has to 
change her tariff and income taxes. France managed, during the 
reign of Napoleon III, to pay four milliards of francs — war expenses ; 
and when in the summer of 1868 she made a loan for army expenses, 
etc. , and everybody anticipated a war with Prussia, which then only 
was prevented by the revolution which had bi^oken out in Spain, said 
loan was signed thirty-four times. At the high rate of 69| francs for 
three-francs bond, equivalent to 115 5-6 for five per cent., ivllj Jifteen 
milliards were put at her disposal. It was, indeed, a speaking witness 
of the accumulated wealth of France. It is an historical fact. To 
this same extent it is deplorable that these milliards of France are 
nearly gone already. The Pays so stated it in the fall of the year 
(1870) as having been expended upon the war up to that time and 
until its end. It cited the figures : 

1 milliard for armaments from 1868 to 1870. 

1^ do. for destroyed and rebuilding of fortifications. 
1^ do. for arms, and cannon, and other war materials, which 
the Germans have destroyed and taken as booty. 

2 do. for destruction of buildings, fields, and other immovable 

property, by both the French and their enemy. 
1 do. for complete and partial ruin of manufacturers, farmers, 
and speculators. 
13 



114 

2| milliards for payment to Germany for the cost of the war (which 
has since then been doubled by Bismarck). 

2 do. for losses consequent upon the direct eliect of all these 
misfortunes. 

These figures are rather siimmarily taken, yet they may have come 
within the knowledge of the exchequer. At least Pouyer-Quer tiers 
stated in June, 1871, after this war was ended, and the damage done 
could be somewhat less vaguely estimated, that loans had to be made 
to the figure of eight milliards. Then it has to be considered that at 
least fourteen counties in which the war waged could not produce any 
grain, and the remainder seventy-five had no hands left to do the 
work. Most of the manufacturers were equally stagnated. The 
harvest of 1870 had not been gathered in at all upon a large section 
of the country, and in other parts it was Avilfully destroyed that it 
might not fall into the hands of the Germans ; besides, was not a good 
one in consequence of insufficient rains. This want of grain, last 
year, has proved since then to have been severely felt, as could not be 
otherwise expected. 

Another consideration is, that the rich had left the country, at least 
would be absent for a long while; in short, the non-republican conduct 
of waging war has added losses upon losses without necessity. As to 
the world, generally it does not admire at all heroism of bloodshed in 
any shape any longer. The days of Csesarism are over, and the poet 
writes the epitaph : 

CsBsar Galliam subegit, Ctesar noster maximus, 
Castra fregit et Gallorum hostium exercitus, 
Fugans milites Suaves Gallicosque Zephyros. 

Iinperator Germanorum, Caesar noster maximus, 
Keguum fundat exoptatum, rem exoptatissimam 
Nobis adferens a flava Sequana in patriam. 

En Augustus imperator, Cffisar noster maximus, 
Fines auget Germanorum, quondam elieu ! perditos, 
Lotharingi cum Alsatis redeunt in patrios. 

Ecce venit Triumphator, Csesar noster maximus, 

Ecce venit in triumj)ho maximus exercitus, 

Ecce venit Pax triumplians, fructus noster aureus. 

Unfortunately the proximity to each other of so many largely pop- 
ulated and warlike nations in Europe having made it indispensable 
for self-preservation to study the science of life destruction minutely, 
it has fortunately develoj^ed itself to a degree that it is not likely that 
war shall again be resorted to for purposes of settling political diffi- 
culties by it, as it borders upon the aboriginal character of cruelty. 



115 

As to the present war it demonstrates but the ancient principle of 
how to carry it on victoriously. The initiation or strategical inde- 
pendence is the main point. The genius of the commander-in-chief 
secures it to the army, holding it in readiness to commence oj)erations 
sooner than his antagonist, and if at all possible, with a numerically 
stronger force. The Germans acted upon this principle, and the 
result has been astonishingly good and unprecedentedly successful. 
The French were always taken by surprise. All the German gener- 
als listened to but one voice : the King's of Prussia in grand com- 
mand, with General Moltke as his immediate executive. 

The French had Napoleon, and Napoleon had Leboeuf. Unfortu- 
nately, Napoleon resigned his command and placed it in the hands 
of two commanding generals instead of one, which proved ruinous. 

The Germans quickly cutting Bazaine off Verdun and Thion- 
ville pre'vented his junction with McMahon, forcing the latter to capit- 
ulate. When Bazaine decided to retreat upon Verdun, he wasted 
forty-eight hours, as he had to return the same vfaj, which enabled 
the Prussians to blockade his way. Equally slow McMahon ap- 
proached Stenay, moving to and fro without covering his march at all. 
It is well known that the Germans at Saarbruecken as well as at 
Mars la Tour, were much weaker in point of numbers than the French, 
not having at all concentrated their strength; yet they conquered 
through mutual and timely assistance among each other during the 
fight — although Napoleon I used to say that two-thirds of success 
is the consequence of calculation, and but one-third luck; it appears 
that the Germans calculated all three-thirds the whole war through, 
not having lost a single battle. Fifty thousand cavalry covering at all 
times the armies, while prej)aring for battle as well as while march- 
ing, it cannot be said otherwise but that they carried out this plan 
methodically, which realized their victories. Wars carried on with 
the assistance of railroads, telegraphs and needle-guns, are almost 
new; at least the old Bulow system is exploded. Troops are trans- 
ported three times quicker than before, and heavy war materials fif- 
teen times. The French already in their Italian war in 1859, availed 
themselves of railroads. It appears that the destructive needle-gun 
and chassepots procrastinate the commencement of the fight. Bayo- 
nets and cavalry have changed their importance but little, except that 
the attack commences from far greater distances than before. The 
artillery aims 5,000 paces and ceases with 1,500, while formerly it 
commenced firing at 1,500 paces. And as to the mitrailleuse of the 
French, it has proved of little service. The dreaded French mitrail- 
leuse requires as great a circumference as its organization is expen- 
sive and preparation costly, without even coming up to anything like 
t he effect which the canon basin all collective points of consideration. 



116 

It likeAvise offers to the enemy's fire an equally large aim as the canon 
does. In firing- at large distances it proves to be of little or no ac- 
count, because its absolute capacity to hit is too deficient, the room 
it can command too small, and an observation almost impossible. 
Upon small distances the densely collected sharp-shooters of the 
enemy are as dangerous to it as to artillery in general. Towards 
troops behind covering, it cannot be used at all, because its shots have 
not the power to pierce nor to scatter. To initiate the offensive it 
cannot be used, and for defense, it can aid the infantry then only 
when the necessary room for the front is wanted in order to direct the 
sufficient number of rifles from a suitable position — for instance, in 
the defense of narrow mountain passes, etc. It is, therefore, verj^ 
rare indeed that it can aid the infantry advantageousl3^ These 
are the reasons which convince that canister shot will not be largely 
resorted to in future wars, as long as this sanguinary way of 'settling 
difficulties is at all tolerated by civilization. 

Strange to say the terrific battles of the war of 1870, were, after all, 
less sanguinary than those of Borodino and Waterloo. The German 
loss at Gravelotte is estimated but at six per cent., and that of the 
French at eleven per cent., as the consequence of firing at very large 
distances. The so-called luck in war is now, fortunately, put into so 
small a compass, through knowledge, which includes the knowledge 
of the inhumanity and crime of war, that peace, which is the well 
applied knowledge of civilization, wdll soon conquer war to the only 
and true glory of sound sense as the element of knowledge. Thus, 
Germany, at least, being both physically and intellectually the domi- 
neering power on the continent of Europe, will force war back among 
nations that henceforth shall prove their semi-civilization by a reck- 
less provocation to it. On the other hand, she will endeavor and 
succeed in a diplomatic way, conjointly with Great Britain and 
America, to pacify beforehand the temper of nations having differ- 
ences to adjust, so that the tender growth of the proletariat of man- 
kind into the social circle of gentility, as the grand object of civilization, 
may not be disturbed by wars any more. It cannot be heralded often 
enough throughout the world that wars are the consequence of a void 
in civilization on the part of the great masses of the population form- 
ing a nation, from which deplorable fact had sprung in ancient times 
the dire necessity of monarchial governments, which, in adjustment of 
the degree and nature of barbarity thus lawlessly practiced, and in 
consideration of the number of millions thus found barbarous, ruled 
autocratically. In proportion to the waning of barbarity in the mil- 
li ons of a nation the rigor is relaxed, and a constitutional government 
adopted, until the nation at large has altogether emancipated itself from 



117 

every remnant of feudalism, and is able to govern itself, adopting the 
republican form of government. 

Man then lives peaceably through the power of culture, and appre- 
ciates reveringly the sovereign povyer endowed with by the Creator for 
His inscrutable purpose of the human race at all existing upon earth ; 
therefore, while so living to be personally independent, to live hap- 
pily, and to act humanely. The republican government thus appears, 
and really is the clerkship of a nation, as composed of such an enlight- 
ened fraternity, of whom every one is supposed to avail himself of the 
full republican trust of personal independence to render himself 
through life better in virtues than he is, and the nation at large to 
progress the civilization of the age by socially developing their moral 
acts, and unitedly apply them. 

On the other hand, how quickly a nation can recover from the shocks 
of a devastating war lasting four years, to-day the condition of the 
United States proves best. The victorious Union had to make loans 
to the amount of over $3,000,000. The quick recovery was made pos- 
sible by immediately after the war reducing the expenses of the army 
and navy to the utmost extent. France, of course, is not as rich in 
resources, and capability of standing heavy losses, as the United States 
are. Although famous for its manufactures, yet the French people, 
like the remainder of European continental people, are rather ne- 
cessitated to value money, the whole of Europe footing up as much 
land as is about arable in the Uiiited States of America. 

When four years afterwards one of the most distinguished men of 
progress of this or any other age, Ex-Governor of California, Leland 
Stanford, planned the greatest technical enterprise of the day, a 
through railroad from the Atlantic to the Pacific, it became evident 
that the thinking, laboring people of the United States had forgotten 
all about the war. And if not so fast as the people of the United 
States, still the French will recover. Her national property will 
steadily reproduce itself in its principal sections. The French, with 
a vivaciousness of spirit rarely foiind, inhabiting a fertile country, 
although but as large as one single State among some odd thirty of 
the United States, the State of Calif oimia, still its situation, the 
national character of the people, will soon forget the debt of five mil- 
lards of francs, provided the}' follow the example of the United States, 
and disarm, as demanded by the principle of the republic, and then 
impose a very heavy import duty upon every superfluous article of 
luxury which the rich can stand and the poor don't care for. 

The French national chai-acter has excellent qualifications. The 
French are sober, industrious, parsimonious, and singly ver}^ peace- 
able throughout the country — the clubs of Paris excepted. "What is, 
therefore, understood by the word, "the people," these have found 



118 

out by tliis time, through the pressure of debt, what is meant by 
bearing' the incubus of royalty. 

The idea of being dazzled by royal splendor in this age would 
show an Indian taste, as everybody knows that it is despotically main- 
tained at the expense of the people, to the detriment of their ability 
to directly provide for themselves more comforts of their own choice, 
and deprives the nation from superintending the expenditure of such 
regal money for the benefit of all, in the manifold manner in which it 
is done in America. 

But the pressure of debt will operate upon France ; her economists 
shall attentively read J. Stuart Mill, the English national economist, 
or send over to Washington for information. France shall soon be out 
of debt. She shall be vigilant as to the Bourbons, Orleans, Napole- 
ons, these so-called hereditary adherents to royalty. That there 
is a minority of benighted people left at all times, and in all civilized 
countries, Avho adhere to legends of such a past, is deplorably unal- 
terable. These are like corn-flowers in a wheat field which has been 
ploughed and resown a dozen times ; they are both of no account, 
simply beautiful to look at ; the economist and farmer are accustomed 
to them. The Orleanists, it is vividly remembered, openly said : 
"France is rich enough to pay for her glory." What glory? The 
glory of ambition and of conquest — the crime of murderous wars. A 
nice glory in the face of reason and America ! ! of civilization and of 
practically applied common sense ! — an inadmissible theory — an ex- 
ploded practice ! France is now fully convinced that wars are non- 
republican, wicked, and belong to mediaeval times and ungovernable 
people. This war did it. Sebastopol, Syria, China, and Mexico were 
not enough, nor the splendor of the metropolis could hide the cripples 
in the glare of the sun of day, nor the neglect of the thousands of the 
needy. But now the French Kepublic, having proved by the over- 
throw of the rebellion that by far the greatest number of the popula- 
tion of the country are aware of the danger that is consequent upon 
rebellion, and more so from aristocrats who created rebellion, by not 
educating the poor, they will, in the face of the five millards of francs 
which their last doings levied upon them all, take good care that it 
does not reoccur. They shall not listen to chauvinists who harangue 
a republican country with retaliation. The nation will know how 
to put into the legislative body men universally respected and care- 
fully voted for, who are enlightened, and consequently peaceably 
inclined, and industrious, i^roducing citizens withal, and who, as such, 
put out of the way the old seductive budget of the army and navy, 
reducing it, like in America, to a reasonable and legitimate standard. 
Taking America as an examjDle, where a President of the United States 
receives $25,000 per annum, because he would feel hurt if the country. 



119 

the people, should be forced, on account of his position, to support 
him as if he was a cripple, and not a worthy man, the worthiest of 
them all, in their own judgment, who labors and is happy to do his 
duty to the country^ at all times, which, like the religion of man, is 
rewarded from within and not without. The French should now make 
a law which prohibits the exchequer to be drawn upon for war pur- 
poses, it being then to rescue native-born citizens from incarceration 
while traveling, like the English nobly did it in Abyssinia, the 
Americans lately in Corea, China, and in this war the Germans mem- 
orably repulsed the French. Such wars are in their nature necessary 
in this age — lawful constabulary proceedings. They rest on a differ- 
ent principle altogether ; it is simply self-defense, like the Union of 
America defended itself against rebellion, any nation against invasion, 
man against a murderer, or the exercise of force is used in the main- 
tenance of law. How often do we hear people in Europe exclaiming : 
" Life is not safe in a republic !" the idea as if they could not reason- 
ably comprehend that life is everywhere safe if man takes care of him- 
self first. It is little ci-edit to a man, and looks very suspicious in a 
nation, to ask a gens d'arms to do it for him. A gentleman includes 
the guarantee to himself, through his gentlemanly behavior, that he 
has no enemies, and that consequently his life is safe. 

Besides there are far more robbers, etcetra, bad people in a monar- 
chical countr}^ than in a republic, on account of abject poverty: the 
consequence of a lack of social freedom to enable man to better his 
condition himself, and so perfect himself in the legitimate exercise of 
his individual sovereignty, which is his right. 

One of the weightiest reasons of all, which can predict to the repub- 
lic of France a speedy recovery from the calamities of war, is the utter 
void of retaliation on the part of the Germans during this war guar- 
anteeing to France no unnecessary disturbance in future, which con- 
cerns her. The republic knows well that public opinion best shields 
it against foreign aggression, but if ever it should prove weak, 
and allow an attempt at overwhelming and overthrowing the republic 
to be successfully made a third time culminating in royalty, which 
signifies war against Germany, then Germany shall demand full pay 
of the old score of 1806 and 1808, and in proportion to the following- 
figures: If 4,500,000 Prussians who inhabited a piece of territory 
after the peace of Tilsit as concluded by Napoleon I, of 2,856 square 
German miles were obliged to pay to the French nation; thalers, 
245,000,000, Prussian currency, how much, shall 35,500,000, or more 
of French people have to pay, in land and money, who live upon 
such a date of the declaration of war against Germany, upon a piece 
of territory exclusive of colonies of just about 200,000 (English) square 
miles ? A fresco painting with an appropriate inscription, should im- 



120 

mediately adorn the tribunal of the presidential chair, in the legisla- 
lative hall at Paris, that the solution to the above Pythagorean prob- 
lem ma}^ paralize the effort of any member there who shall intend to 
annul the republic ! 

France now dutifully takes every surplus franc; firstly, to educate 
the million, and, further, expends it upon the proletariat in comforta- 
ble abodes, after the Peabody plan, and laAvfully and carefully looks 
after it. France does it in a truly charitable, republican manner, and 
so should all Europe. 

The houses for the inebriates should be all over Europe multiplied, 
and the river Styx dammed off, the waters of which are intoxicating- 
beverages, which infuriate. The latter mammothian enterprise will 
set millions to work, for the river Styx overflows the whole of para- 
dise upon earth, fertilizing in it the domain of Satan Sin. As among 
civilized nations the Americans are the most industrious people, among 
mankind the Chinese, and of all creation the bees, nature so proves 
by its love of labor the superiority: of the one in universal individual 
comfort; the other, one-third of all mankind, in the comparative free- 
dom from vice; and the third, by the accumulation of lioney, which puts 
at all times to shame the labor of the most industrious man. Our 
dreadful ignorance of the Chinese language, debared us, liither to- 
fore, from estimating properly those 400,000,000 of living people, but 
the time is at hand, since steam girdles the world, when civilized 
nations may learn a great deal of them, as they constantly do of 
nature. Besides the English and the Americans, the French republic 
has the best chance, thanks to the acquisition of those six provinces 
in Anam (Cochin-China), which are theirs, to reimburse the nation 
for the outlay, at the time of what was intended not to reach all, like 
in a republic, but be absorbed b}^ the Napoleonic dynasty. 






T TH¥. FJ.F.VFAT 



t'jL iriiii ^nihy jhi 



PEACE.— THE NEW BOUNDAEY OF GEEMANY. 



After the capture of Napleon III at Sedan, and the flight of the 
Regency from Parirf, Germany found herself in a dilemma of the most 
serious kind. She saw nobody with whom to conclude peace. With 
whom, therefore, was an idle question, because it could not be 
answered. Germany was ready to make peace, asking nothing but 
security for the impossibility of France to ever again rise in the offen- 
sive against Germany, as well as for the covering of the costs of the 
war. Napoleon, in spite of his captivity, was yet the legitimate head 
of the nation ; the latest legitimate expressions of the will of the 
I'rench people, the plebiscitum of May, 1870, had not been canceled 
nor revoked. The Legislative Body and the Senate, though by force 
dispersed on the 4th of September, could not be considered as having 
been sent away by the nation ; on the other hand the Provisional 
Government of the Republic existed, acknowledged, at least, by the 
majority of the people. De facto it had no legal basis to rest upon, 
because the French nation at large had not been consulted in regard 
to sanctioning.it. Germany therefore reserved to herself, Na^Doleon, 
or his Regency, to make peace with- ; or again, with the Legislative 
Body of France, or with the party of national defense, respectively: 
with a committee so authorized by France to conclude peace. NajDol- 
eon, therefore, was treated at Wilhelmshohe not as a prisoner, but as 
a fugative Emperor, at the same time that Favre was admitted to 
the German head-quarters soliciting to negotiate for an armis- 
tice and convoke a provisional government. The latter attempt was 
given up at the end of September, a second time at the end of Octo- 
ber, when Thiers had returned from his visit to the various neutral 
governments of Europe, and was formally introduced by them to the 
French nation as the proper person who, and with whom, peace could 
be negotiated. He came, introduced by monarchs, but not by the 
republic of France. However, the government of national defence, 
organizing new armies and sending them to Paris, preferred a sort of 
dictature to both Theirs and peace. They intentionally evaded a 
14 



122 

national representation of the will of the peojale. At last negotiations 
were cut off altogether, which was surely not the fault of the Ger- 
mans. 

This dictature must have believed in the ultimate success of the bat- 
tles, and so the wa,r was resumed. 

Matters remained in i<ia1u quo until the armies were everywhere 
defeated, alid Paris could not be saved. 

At that time, about the end of January, 1871, Grermany might as 
well have taken Paiis and its forts, made 180,000 prisoners, disarmed 
the national guards, occupied the town and forts, assumed the cus- 
tody over the exchequer of France, and introduced the police into 
the clubs. All that was possible and executable after monarchical 
maxims generally, but the original question, '^ith whom to make 
peace? what finishes the war ? remained unanswered. In that case, 
as just now mentioned, peace could not be concluded with the pro- 
visional government. The government a prisoner — as Napoleon had 
been made one at Sedan — had no authority to negotiate for peace. 
In Bordeaux Gambetta continued war ; he would indeed have con- 
tinued it until all Prance would have had to be occupied by the Ger- 
mans, and even then the question could not have been answered, with 
whom to negotiate peace. Of Napoleon, the Germans could not 
think any longer, nor of his Regency, as both had lost eveiy influence 
in France ever since September, 1870. The Napoleons were indeed 
consigned to obUvion by the French nation. 

Germany, instead of taking and occupying Paris, found, never- 
theless, the way to make peace. The j)rovisional government in 
Paris had not to be disturbed, that was the idea. It could not jpos- 
sibly be accomplished. It had to be so managed that the provisional 
government, which was well aware of the necessity on its part to 
make peace, had to so conduct itself that the war party should res- 
pect it, and then take measures for an election all over France, 
which should lead to a new national government. That by it peace 
would be arrived at, was expected as natural. The armistice of the 
28th of January was, therefore, an important step towards it. It 
saved Germany the trouble of transporting 180,000 prisoners to Ger- 
many, and the pacification and support of the excited Parisians, which 
their own government enjoyed. Another advantage was that the 
neutral powers could be convinced of the moderation of Germany, 
and its earnest desire for peace. Already Gambetta ceased his war- 
cry; early in February the elections took place, and proved, as was 
duly predicted, a large majority in favor of peace. A chief of the 
executive was appointed by the national assembly, the first legitimate 
government since the 4th of September, who, imbued with the neces- 
sity to make peace, duly negotiated at German head-quarters for it, 



123 

and signed the document accepted by the national assembly at Bor- 
deaux. The preliminaries of peace were solemnly and mutually rati- 
fied at head-quarters, on the 2nd of March, and the answer to the 
query found and given. 

From these preliminaries to the " definitive peace," was not an easy 
matter to proceed, by any means, and not expected by either party 
on the 26th of February, when the preliminaries were settled, that it 
would be so difficult to bring peace about. In France existed a lawful 
assembly, and a government accordingly. Nobody could foresee 
what pretensions might be made on the 18th of March, to question 
the rights of the national assembly and its executive of government 
to make peace. The case was strangely exceptional: indeed without 
example in history. And still there arose one. It was the Paris 
commune. Still stranger the revolution spread in quarters of Paris 
within range of the north and east forts, occupied by the Germans. 
The danger of this rebellion was the possibility that the conduct of 
the metropolis inight be imitated in other large cities of France; then 
again, the great weakness and helplessness of the government with 
which Germany had concluded peace ; likewise the consequences of 
the possibility of a successful rebellion, or one so partially as it, would 
affect the exchequer of France by retarding the financial and eco- 
nomical growth of it, of interest to Germans at that moment. As to 
Germany, she kept joerfectly quiet ; the Germans had nothing to do 
with internal French quarrels. Besides, another difficulty arose, 
from another direction: the French government, though anxious to 
conclude peace as quickly as possible, and to be on good terms with 
Germany, exerted itself to postpone the conferences at Brussels rather 
than push them. Doubts arose after all whether they could or would 
be in favor of -peace. The German empire had no representative at 
Versailles who might have found out and informed the country of the 
true cause of this vascillation. The situation was to such a degree 
delicate and perplexing that the Germans were about to take Paris 
without further ado, and keep it as a jDledge until the French should 
bend to the necessity of making peace. Bismarck, however, adroitly 
managed the difficulty. He hit upon the expedient of personally con- 
fronting the French ministers, and succeeded admirably. He soon 
found out that the difficulty rested on a misunderstanding. Not only 
did he find the French ministers at Frankfort quite tractable, determined 
to make peace, and as quickly as possible, and by no means bashful 
as to acknowledging the truth : that France could very well afford to 
pay so just a sum of money. Whether it was a change of climate 
which invigorated their manliness, or the absence of English advice 
and mediators, or the Bismarckian eloquence which created the lovely 
harmony between them, it is hard to tell. Enough that the French 



124 

miiiisters at Fraukfort were found to be entirely different genii than 
Avore the negotiators at Brussels. They even decided to still further 
secure the money which had been in the proclamation agreed upon to 
be paid. The first half milliard should be paid thirty days after the 
capitulation of Paris, the second payment of 1000 millions to be paid 
during 1871, and then only Germans to quit the forts of Paris. By the 
4th of May, 1872, the fourth half milliard should liaA^e to be paid. All 
payments to be made in coin or notes on good banks, and first-class 
bills of exchange. As to the remaining milliards to be produced, the 
stiy)ulated time, as given in the preliminaries, should be adhered to. 

The occupation of the forts of Paris until one and a half milliards 
should have been paid by the end of 1870, was considered absolutely 
indispensable and necessary as a matter of precaution against fluctu- 
ations, to which the internal condition of France at that time remained 
exposed. In regard to the treaty of commerce, when it is part of the 
financial system, and forms one of the most important portions of 
iadirect taxation, Germany took the firm ground that it should not 
be forced ujion a great nation. The working classes, as tlie}^ now con- 
template the matter in spite of the episode of free trade during the 
reign of Napoleon, would feel constantly chafed at Germany being at 
all favored by the tariff. Suffice it for German_y that the reduction in 
the tariff, and similar advantages which France has accorded to Great 
Britain, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Austria, and Russia, should 
continue to be accorded to Germany also. The extraordinary favors 
above this, as accorded to the Zolverein in 18G2, would, however, be 
canceled. It does not matter much to Germany, for France has always 
been slow to make concessions. At one time France wished to cancel 
all the above named ti'eaties of commerce, the one of Germany in- 
cluded ; whether it can now afford to so do, remains to be seen. 



THE PRELIMINARIES OF PEACE. 

The preliminaries of peace, as stipulated at Versailles, on the 26th 
of Februar}^, 1871, were worded as follows : 

Between the Chancellor of the German Empire, 

Count Otto von Bismarck-Schonhausen, 

who holds power of attorney from the Emperor of Germany and 

King of Prussia, 

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the King of Bavaria, 

Count Otto v'onBray-Steinburg, 

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the King of Wurtemburg, 

Freiherrn August von Waechter, 



125 

The Minister of State and President of the Ministerial Council of 

the Grand Duchy of Baden, Julius Jolly, Esq., 

all of whom represent the German Empire 

on the one side, 

And the Chief of the Executive Power of the French Eepublic, 

Monsieur Thiers, 

And the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jules Favre, 

who represent France, 

on the other side ; 

(the power of attorney of all being found in good and regular 
form correct,) is made the following agreement, which shall serve as 
the preliminary basis to peace, to be ratified later (and which was 
duly concluded at Frankfort-on-the-Main, on the 10th of May, 1871). 
Article I. France resigns to Germany all her rights and preten- 
tions to those territories which lie to the east of the boundary, which 
is sketched as follows : The line of demarcation commences on the 
northwesterly boundary of the Canton Cattenom, stretching towards 
the Grand Dachy of Luxemburg, continues southward to the western 
boundary of the Cantons Cattenom and Thionville, divides the Canton 
Briey, while running lengthways of the western boundaries of the par- 
ishes of Montois-la Montague and Eoncourt, as well as lengthways of 
the eastern boundaries of the parishes of Marie-aus Chenes, Saint Ail, 
and Habouville, touches the boundary line of the Canton Gorze, 
which it divides lengthway of the boundaries of the parishes Vionville, 
Bouxieres and Onville, runs parallel to the southwest respectively, 
the south frontier of the County of Metz, the western boundary of the 
County Chateau-Salins, as far as the parish Pettoncourt, of which line 
it embraces the western and southern frontier, and then follows the 
spur of hills which stretch between the Seille and the Moncel, as far 
as the frontier of the County of Saarburg, south of Garde. Then the 
line of demarcation unites at the frontier of this county as far as the 
County Tanconville, of which it touches the northern boundary. 
From there it follows the spurs of hills which are situated between the 
sources of the rivulets Sarreblanche and of the Vezouze, as far as the 
boundary of the Canton Schirmeck, continues along the western fron- 
tier of said canton, includes the parishes of Saales, Bourg-Bruche, 
Colroy-la-E,oclie, Plaine, Ranrupt, Saulxures, and Saint Blaise-la- 
Roche, all of which are within the Canton Saales, and then joins the 
western boundary of the provinces of Lower and Upper Rhine, as far 
as the Canton Belfort. Quitting the southern boundary of it, not far 
from Vourvenans, it divides the Canton Delle at the southern frontier 
of the parishes Bourogne and Froide-Fontaine, and so reaches the 
frontier of Switzerland, running along the eastern boundaries of the 
parishes of Jonchery and Delle. 



126 

The German Empire shall, forever, possess these boundaiies in full 
sovereign power and right of ownership to same. An international 
commission, consisting on both sides, in equal numbers, of the re]3- 
resentatives of the contracting parties, shall immediately be ordered, 
after exchange of ratifications of the present treaty, to arrange upon 
the spot the new boundary line in accordance with the aforesaid stip- 
ulation. 

Said Commision shall govern the division of ground and soil, as 
well as divide the value of property which heretofore belonged in 
common to districts and parishes, which now are separated by the 
new boundary line. In case of differences of opinion among them- 
selves in regard to the boundary line, and the orders for their set- 
tlement, said Commissioners shall refer the matter to their respective 
Governments for ultimate decision. 

The boundary line, fixed as above delineated, is given in green upon 
the new maj), of which two have been made, which are exactly alike, 
and show the territorial sections which come under the Govei'nment 
of Alsace, as jjublished already in September, 1870, at Berlin, by the 
geographical and statistical department of the War Ofiice. The two 
maps shall be affixed, one to each of the documents of the present 
treaty. 

The line of demarcation as so far given, has, however, been changed 
as by mutual agreement of the contracting parties, and altered as 
follows : In the former department of Moselle the villages Marie-aux 
Chenes, near St. Privat-la-Montagne and Vionville, to the west of Re- 
zonville, are ceded to Germany, against which France shall keep the 
town and forts of Belfort, with some city property attached to it, 
which shall later be fixed upon. 

Aeticle II. France shall pay to the Emperor of Germany the sum 
of five milliards of francs. At least one milliard of which shall be 
paid in the course of the year 1871, and the remainder in the course 
of three years from the date of the ratification of the present treaty. 

Article III. The evacuation of the French from territory taken 
possession of by German troops shall commence after the ratification 
of the present treaty by the National Assembly in session at Bordeaux. 
Immediately after the ratification, the German troops shall quit the 
city limits of Paris, as well as those forts of Paris which are situated 
upon the left bank of the River Seine. The Germans shall likewise 
evacuate in as little time as possible, according to agreement between 
the military authorities of both countries, the departments altogether 
of Calvados, Orne, Sarthe, Eure et Loire, Loiret, Loir et Cher, Indre 
et Loire, and Tonne ; and further, the departments Seine inferieure, 
Eure, Seine et Oise, Seine efc Marne, Aube, Cote d'or, down to the 
left bank of the Seine. At the same time the French troops shall 



127 

withdraw to beyond the Loire, which river they shall not be permitted 
to cross ere the treaty of definite peace is signed. Excepted is the 
garrison of Paris, the strength of which shall not exceed 40,000 men, 
and those garrisons which are absolutely necessary to be maintained 
for the security of fortified places. 

The evacuation by Grerman troops of departments which are situ- 
ated between the right bank of the Seine and the eastern boundary, 
shall gradually take place after the ratification of the definitive treaty 
of peace has been signed, and the payment of the first half milliard of 
contribution money shall have been duly made, as stipulated in Arti- 
cle II. 

The evacuation shall commence from those departments which lie 
nearest to Paris, and shall so continue in proportion to the contribu- 
tion money coming in. After the first payment of half a milliard, the 
following departments shall be evacuated : Somme, Oise, and those 
sections of the departments Seine inferieure, Seine et Oise, and Seine 
et Marne, which are situated upon the right bank of the Seine, as 
well as the sections of the Department Seine, and the forts upon the 
right bank of the Seine. 

After the payment of two milliards, the occupation of French terri- 
tory by German troops shall comprise but the departments of Marne, 
Ardennes, Haute Marne, Meuse, Vosges, Meurthe, as well as the 
fortress Belfort, with its city limits, which shall serve as further pledge 
for the debt until the remainder three milliards shall have been forth- 
coming. The number of German troops upon said territory shall not 
exceed 50,000 men. 

It is left for the Emperor of Germany to decide whether he will 
accept a financial guaranty to a territorial one, which he has got now, 
while occupying certain sections of France, should the Government 
of France make overtures to that effect for the purpose of a riddance 
of the Germans from France, and the Emperor of Germany prefer 
accepting them as in the interest of Germany as amounting to the 
same thing. 

For the three milliards, if their payment should be put off, five per 
cent, interest will be added to the sum total until paid, and counted 
from the day of ratification of the present compact. 

Article IV. The German troops shall not touch anything in the 
departments which they occupy, in the way of requisitions, whether 
of money or property, of the French. Against which those troops 
who have to remain in France for the present shall be maintained 
at the expense of the Government of France, and provided for at a 
ratio as shall be agreed upon by the Commissary Department of the 
German Empire. 



128 

Article V. The interests of the inhabitants of territory ceded by 
France to Germany, shall be regulated for them as favorably as possi- 
ble, in rej^'ard to their commerce and industrial rights, and as soon as 
the conditions of a definitive peace shall have been fixed upon. For 
this purpose a certain time will be agreed to, within which those 
inhabitants shall enjoy especial facilities for a free exchange of their 
commercial productions of industry. The German Government shall 
not hinder the free egress of inhabitants from those sections of terri- 
tory, nor shall it take measures towards any of those inhabitants 
which touch the person or property. 

Article VI. , The prisoners of war who have not as yet been liber- 
ated, by way of an exchange of prisoners, shall be delivered up imme- 
diately upon the ratification of the preliminaries. In order to facili- 
tate the transportation of the French prisoners, the French govern- 
ment shall put a certain number of railway cars at the disposal of the 
German authorities, and send so many of them into the interior of 
Germany as shall be found expedient for such an accommodation 
and at a charge the same as paid in France by the Government for 
the transport of the military. 

Article VII. The opening of the negotiations in regard to a defin- 
itive peace, which is to be concluded upon the basis of these j^relimina- 
ries, shall take place in Brussels, and without dela}', after ratification 
of their contents by the National Assembly and the Emperor of Ger- 
many. 

Article VIII. After conclusion and ratification of the definitive 
peace, the administration of the departments which have to remain 
occupied by German troops, shall again be turned over to French 
authorities. Yet the latter shall have to submit to the dictation of 
commanding generals of those German troops in regard to what they 
consider necessary to be required of said authorities for the safety, 
the care, and the cantonments of soldiers. 

In the departments so occupied the collecting of taxes shall be at- 
tended to after ratification of the present treaty for account of the 
French Government and through French officials. 

Article IX. It is understood that the present treaty stipulatioiis 
cannot give to the German military authorities a right of any kind to 
the ownership of those sections of the territory, which are not at 
present occupied by German troops. 

Article X. The present preliminaries shall be laid "without dels,j 
before the Emperor of Germany, as well as before the French 
•National Assembly, which holds its sessions at Bordeaux, for ratifica- 
tion. (Signatures.) 

Done at Versailles the 26th of February, 1871. 

Witness : Blume, 

Mayor in the staff of Generals. 



PART THE TWELFTH. 



GERMANY AT HOME. 



At home Germany has now laws, thanks to progress, which give 
freedom to the press, that man may promulgate his opinion and cul- 
tivate truth, knowledge and taste among the people— give liberty to 
marry by pacifying the old feudal anxiety of caste, so mainly and 
obviously detrimental to nuptial bliss of the parties concerned— does 
away with the uncharitable act of imprisonment for debt, which 
debars man from rallying his energies thus paralized, while it lulls 
the other into inertness to look out for his own business, whom to 
trust and when losing, is apt to blame everybody else save himself, 
in spite of the law shielding him in the courts of justice against 
downright villainy— secures free labor, and finally regulates trade and 
commerce among the divers States of the Union; provides for the 
homeless, the sick and the needy in a dutiful and suitable way, and 
in a fraternal christian manner . 

How greatly and beneficially these aforesaid laws affect personal 
liberty, advance the unrestrained movements of man, and above all, 
lift the working classes into home comforts through these laws, which 
secure their htippiness and shield their independence, enabling them 
to put a proper value upon their labor and time, and thus receive far 
better wages than hithertofore attainable according to their labor's 
legitimate worth, all these traits of civilization cannot be loudly 
enough commended and applauded, nor by the Germans sufficiently 
heartily a]3 predated. 

That Germany has so changed for the better, within comparatively 
a brief space of time, is perfectly wonderful, and what is still more 
gratifying, the world believes in it as having been proved by success, 
and correctly and justly attributes the defeat of the French, not to a 
decadence of prowess in the latter nation, but simply to the greater 
moral and intellectual strength of Germany as displayed by the 
Union. 

Those mental links of theirs, composed of the strength of enlighten- 
ment, which were commenced to be made a generation previously to 
15 



130 

1870, have now beeu hotly smelted in the unearthly fire of the war 
by all concerned, and have completed the chain of brotherhood to a 
length which shall maintain its solidity of indejjendence forever. It 
shall be extended to the outside world, until the last German now 
under foreign monarchial rule shall belong to the mother country, 
and the change of the present form of Government into the rej)ub- 
lican be duly, peaceably, and everlastingly inaugurated. 

This latter task of the requisition of foreigners shall comparatively 
be an easy one, and it is to be hoped will be a peaceful one. 

Instead of 40,000,000, as at present, Germany shall then foot up 
about 60,000,000 population, a strength which is at all times of the 
future a guarantee for peace, as long as monarchial governments 
addicted to wars shall be in Europe ; but at the same time points to 
the impossibility of harmonizingly holding together so vast an enlight- 
ened nation, except under a republican form of Government, after the 
experience in the United States of America. 

How petty monarchies wane under such auspices this war has best 
shown. As the previous alienation of the South from the North was 
the work of unscrupulous machinations, therefore unenlightened, so 
it had to wane before the power of genius of a Bismarck, and the 
patriotism of an Emperor William and his son. 

Some thirty kingdoms, dukedoms, principalities, free cities, etcetera, 
German sovereignties, among one kindred jjeople, upon a small piece 
of land of the globe, harrassing one another b}^ wanton obstreperous- 
ness, to love each other as nearest relatives among mankind, suddenly 
concentrating into one national government in Germany. What pro- 
gress of the age ! 

What is it which so blessed their understanding ? — tearing the grey 
veil from their eyes, and showed them cured of glaucoma, with no 
fear of a relapse ? It was the universally applied medicine of the 
school book ! ! ! Religion, faith in God and themselves, as evoked 
upon the occasion by the hostility of a warlike and aggressive nation — 
self-defense in barbarous times, made necessary to be deplored. 

It lead to the internal application of knowledge, instead of the use 
of the painful and risky operations of external force. And who is the 
learned physician, the Graeffe of the faculty? America ! America ! 
where 8,000,000 of citizens of German origin continually correspond 
with their respective relatives on the continent of Eiirope, and tell 
them how freely, unrestrainedly, and comfortably they live and are 
happy.* 

* The poorer of the means of siibsistence foreigners arrive in America, the more 
gratefully and quicker will they write home, provided always, and applicable to all 
nations alike, the individual has temperate habits; but the richer the universal for- 
eigner arrives in America, the longer the time in which he improves to comprehend 



131 

As to this war, if there is anything which could at all recompense a 
citizen for having bravely risked his life to save the country, outside 
of the reward, with which his conscience of having done his duty fills 
his breast with serene happiness, it is for once the undisguised, 
straightforward intention on the part of the Germans to amend their 
social laws — and what is more, they have done it. 

There now exists a universal right and liberty of a citizen of one 
State desirous of choosiiig and settling in any other G-erman State, to 
so do, and to be viewed in everj^ respect as if he were born there. It 
is altogether in imitation of America ; it is completely republican, 
humane, and broad. The citizen so settling has free liberty to do 
what he may please in pursuit of his hajDpiness ; he has the same state 
rights as the citizen born there, can settle permanently, labor as he 
may prefer, can apply for some of&cial position, can buy and sell 
land, can become, as said before, a citizen, if he chooses, of that 
State ; in fact, stands on a par with one born there, including every 
justice in courts, which is eked out to him as to others, and every 
juridical protection. Neither the State where he was born in, or came 
from last, nor any other, can molest him, while in his new domicil 

this incomparably free country. The latter gentlemen, from Dan to Bethsheba, 
alight at their respective clubs and stay there, adding nothing to their knowledge, 
nor do they forget Vv'hat afflicted them in Europe with the glaucoma upon their vis- 
ion; they absolutely defy, above everything, the appreciation of the virtue of labor 
in any shape, which necessarily' consigns them to the more arduous duties of the 
refinement of the aboriginal, in the various shapes of sensual gratification more or 
less gross. They are the unrelenting enemies of the charitable feeling of brother- 
hood and tolerance, until introduced to members of the club, having excited their 
curiosity bj' their good breeding, their knowledge and their wealth. 

Upon becoming more intimatelj'- acquainted, the Europeans begin to reflect, and 
are beyond measure astonished to find that their new conge', the Americans, are the 
beloved s*ons of self-made men, and their amiability, unresisting, because natural 
in the atmosphere of this country, and the Americans, that the ancestors of the 
foreigners of rank slew more human beings in battle than the King of Ashantee, 
and the ' ' accomplished gentleman " generally an icy matter of form. 

It is this incorrigible restraint, fostered by a want of productive labor, and aggri- 
vated by aristocratic customs, which prevents an intelligent /oreic/ne?' from compre- 
hending the moral strength and vastness of the number of useful and imj)ortant 
citizens in the United States to their real worth, and aetuallj^ leaves the cox;ntry 
with a theatrical impression upon his mind that the liberty of America is a gaudy 
coulisse, behind which the tragedy of pandemonium is rehearsed, which is bound to 
swallow up the Union with fire and brimstone, when the country shall be as popu- 
lated as Europe. 

It is well that he leaven, and better still, should he be accompanied by a precious 
bevy of promiscuous infidels, who, born Christians, have lost their pious faith in 
God, in the i)ermanency of the Eepublican institutions, and in marriage. Setting 
aside the reprehensible tendency in a purely patriotic view, such harrangue, at this 
age, from otherwise intelligent people, to v/hich one is unavoidably subjected, is, to 
say the least, extremely vulgar, and would deserve no notice whatever if it was not 



132 

and abode. This law, so generous, Imniaue, and republican, came 
into force 1st July, 1871. All the States of the Union em])raced it 
except Bavaria, and that State is, of course, but for the present reluc- 
tant to so do. 

It comprises not only laboring men, mechanics, and merchants, but 
every citizen. As it is of more general avail among persons in the habit 
of constantly moving about, it is so much more beneficial in a public 
point of vieAV. This great, law answers the modorn principles of social 
rights, it does away with the old barrier of sedentary habits and here- 
ditary customs, cures the lethargic effects of home sickness, and hurls 
every one into the great current of public usefulness and cheerful 
labor. Soon the country will be too small, and they want colonies. 
Go ahead. If that law is not copied from America, then the members 
of the German Diet are men of sound republican principles, beyond a 
doubt, and are, indeed, original, and deserve encomium far and wide. 
With this great law the last fibre of a narrow-minded, selfish, particu- 
larismus is outrooted. 

As it is in the Union of Anieri(;a, so it is in Germany : A citizen of 
California is as dear to the Union of America as a citizen of Maine or 
Florida ; and in Germany a citizen of Prussia is as integral a part of 
the Union of Germany to-day as is one of Saxony or Wurtemberg. 
All this was planned in ISGG, and in four years fully consummated. 
What a progress ! 



positively dangerous to puljlic welfare because of its contamination among the uu- 
sophisticated. 

To openly rattle at pillars of the civilization of ages, built and hourly strength- 
ened by reason, truth and duty, fully sustained by grateful experience, and resting 
eternally erected upon the living trxrth of life itself, cannot but end in an entire 
overthrow of the mind of such an unfortunate individual, ultimately consigning it 
either to the asylum , or a paroxism of suicidal despair. 

The fact is, the rich Eui-opean seeks America in large cities only, just as he erron- 
eously judges France from Paris only, mistaking the dash of extreme fashion for the 
governing principle of civilization, and therefore remains ignorant of the import- 
ance of the nation at large. 

To an aristocrat the definition of the word materialismi;s is at all times wanted. 
His intellect is perfectly obfuscated as to the purposes of labor and its virtuous ten- 
dencies towards the advancement of the morality and happiness of man, as he 
never es:perienced the pecuniary necessity of it. He therefore cannot comprehend 
that to a civilized being, to the most civilized nation, there is nothing left but labor 
to save them, rich or poor, from idiocj^ or barbarism. 

How can such minds comprehend the wealth which freedom in America la^ashes 
upon every one worthy of himself, and enables him to make labor of all kinds, at all 
times, immediately productive and useful to himself and mankind at large. The 
sweets of toil, the charms of fraternity, are pitifully lost to the aristocrat, the igno- 
rance of which sours his temper and makes him disagreeable to, and frequently 
derided by all enlightened feUow-men, all because inertness debarred him from 
knowing himself. 



133 

It appears from the broadness of this blessed law that it will become 
entirely unnecessary for Germany to forcibly insist upon the transfer 
of the not-united, monarchically ruled Germans ; suffice that it be- 
comes known abroad. The respective foreign governments will be 
obliged to initiate the question themselves, and meet Germany half 
way upon the subject, or else expect a revolution in their own coun- 
tries which would lose them the provinces without remuneration. 

As a matter of course, these various laws which the German Diet 
have so honestly made, were vouchsafed by the constitution ! To 
carry out the constitution is to guarantee liberalism and prepare for 
republicanism. It shows the spirit of the Union as being largely 
and equally diffused among the more uniformly enlightened people, 
which shall henceforth enable the nation to progress steadily and 
without hinderance by foreign nations, being at all times in a position 
to ignore with patriotic contempt any outside design at an impedi- 
ment to such a steady national growth, correctly judged by them as 
emanating from a political jealousy, and the daring of the attempt 
itself at such a hostile act, to be sternly viewed in the light of a casus 
belli. 

Those aforesaid intelligent classes shall continue to enlarge them- 
selves from the million, just like in the United States of America, 
constantly reaching the surface of intellectual strength through as 
much universally uniform a school system as ever possibly to continue 
to be ereated, in order to be enabled to pave their own way to the 
notice of their merits in after life, by the fellow-citizens of their 
country and the world at large. 




PART THE THIRTEENTH. 



THE FUTURE OF THE GERMANIC RACE.— THE REGEN- 
ERATION OF THE NETHERLANDS. 



All that Germany needs besides the inland Germans, ruled over by 
foreigners, is Holland, its fleet and colonies, as it would give to the 
entire German Union the necessary adjacent seacoast to unitedly 
develop itself from, and to be enabled to create and maintain com- 
mercial facilities in proportion to its political greatness. Germany 
may then consider herself internationally independent, and in a posi- 
tion to enjoy freedom, happiness and influence in a full cosmopolitan 
view. "Without Holland, the trans-oceanic commerce of Germany 
could never dev«Blop itself in due and full jDroportion to her national 
strength in general, and would unavoidably fall a prey to other 
nations, to the obvious detriment of her political influence. 

As to the two only cosmopolitan nations of the World, the United 
States of America and Great Britain, they would conjointly receive 
the youthful giant with ojjen arms, the only one besides them that 
was needed to vest the progress of future ages principally in the Ger- 
manic race. As there is room enough in Oceanica and Africa for the 
youthful giant to colonize among the natives, Germany does not in- 
terfere with the interests of Great Britain; on the contrary, the two 
nations shall progress together. The comparatively slumbering 
energy of the Dutch and Hanse-towns would revive to a miraculous 
extent under the strong shield of protection from the all-common 
fatherland. There never was a theory which could so easily be prac- 
tically applied. The idea of the French, an inferior nation as to 
population when compared with Germany, as it should be, can be, 
and must be, to settle in Cochin-Ghina ! It would be an everlasting 
opprobrium to Germany to now not unite all her elements for a simi- 
lar purpose. "What glory it would be to civilization! What a future 
for Holland! 

Why ! she would by far eclipse Prussia in Germany. Holland in 
Germany would rejpresent Germany in the world, while Prussia 
alone can represent the present Union but in Europe only, possessing 



135 

neither colonies nor a fleet in adequate proportion to the present con- 
solidation of the country. Holland, together with the Hanse-towns 
and Baltic ports, would lead the way into the world, converting- once 
more their own commerce into uncountable gold, and the united pro- 
ductions of such a GJ-ermany into requisition by all mankind. 

Holland and Belgium, (the lower lands of Germany, as formerly 
continental G-ermany formed the upper land of the Dutch Empire) 
have shown to the world in ages past what progress a nation can pave 
when possessing accessible and good harbors, and what a union of 
energetic men is capable of performing and achieving. Just like her 
incomparable neighbor in Europe to-day : the British nation. "What 
has made Great Britain great ? Character, knowledge of geography, 
indomitable courage, jjerseverance and discretion. Has she not got 
the same attributes ? Enough, Holland has proved it once, and shall 
prove it again. Those same virtues that gave her neighbor a London, 
a Liverpool, a Manchester, a Birmingham, a Glasgow, and a Calcutta, 
gave to the Netherlands of that great Dutch Empire an Amsterdam, 
a Rotterdam, a Middleburg, a Batavia, and to the now called Belgium 
an Antwerp, which was, about three centuries ago, the largest com- 
mercial city upon the globe. Imperishable as her renown is the one 
of Hamburg, Bremen, and Lubeck, which sisterhood shall again pro- 
duce a cosmopolitan greatness, and undoubtedly greater than before, 
because assisted by steam. 

As to Belgium, which is partially hidden from the German Union 
by the French language, the British Empire has hithertofore gladly 
protected her against the encroachments of France as entirely owing 
to the previous incompetency of Germany, on account of its distrac- 
tion so to do, but which is now obviated by this war. The Belgians, 
as earl}^ as the fifteenth century, were proud to call themselves of 
Germanic origin. Her alienation, like that of Holland, is, therefore, 
unnatural, and, consequent only, upon the rise of the British Em- 
pire as having superseded the greatness of the Dutch Empire, from 
which dissolution the Netherlands were saved. 

As Holland once included Germany, so shall Germany now include 
Holland, because, as said before, a great Union has to require a great 
seacoast. The re-establishment of the greatness of the Netherlands, 
and Hanse-towns, depends, therefore, entirely upon the entrance of 
the former into the present Union of Germany. The world will be- 
lieve in it, because it remembers that the Wallonian city of Luttich 
vied in elegance with any other of the period — that the Luxembur- 
gians afforded princes who ascended the throne of Germany, as 
well as that the memorable battle of Muehldorf decided the fate of 
Germany and Italy — that it was in Flanders where the German Hansa 



136 

lived her imperishable renown before the world, and that Brugge was 
unsurpassed. 

The most palmy days of Brabant where those when her people 
commingled their interests with those of the German Empire. As to 
the Vlamish people, those are of Germanic origin, best proved by the 
Vlamish language. They should all belong to German}-, with the 
exception, perhaps, of the Wallonians, who have, more or less, adopted 
Fre'hch habits and customs ; in fact, are partially identified with the 
French. 

How great the change has been among the two greatest nations of 
the world — the United States of America and Great Britain — in their 
esteem for the present German Union, and all the exemplary intelli- 
gent men who have so signally contributed to it is but seen here from 
the sudden silence of the sneering tongue among the vast forty mill- 
ions, pardonably doubting at the commencement of the war victory 
over the French, although somewhat prepared for it since the battle 
of Sadowa, yet by no means expecting it as a certainty — said tongue 
became more and more paralized during the continuancy of the war 
and its endless victories. It ceased altogether from one end of the 
country to the other to audily vibrate, when by the venerable Em- 
peror's entrance into Paris, the strange fact of the existence of a larger 
and stronger nation upon the continent of Europe than the French 
were, revealingly flashed upon them all at once, having become a 
glaringly incontrovertible and uiideniable fact. 

From the day that the Hollandish Knickerbockers had settled in 
New York, down to the hour in which the battle of Jena had lately 
been balanced in Paris by the above symbol of justice, the Americans 
at large had fancied the German to be a degenerated Hollander, the 
so-called Germany being incomprehensible to them on account of the 
confusion of petty sovereignties and feudal enmities among a kindred 
people, who Avere to them therefore excusably less known than the 
tribes of Indians upon their Occident. 

The less educated again down to the altogether unceremonious boy, 
indulged even in ej)ithets, which though law and inhospitable, had 
likewise their origin in the political nonentity of the Germans as a 
nation of union, of harmonj^, and of strength, not having had, until 
the battle of Sadowa, a single proof to the contrary on record, nor 
at all caring to investigate causes. 

Although the present Germany is not as yet by any means Avhat 
Holland once was — a cosmopolitan nation, and at her time the most 
powerful nation upon the globe, because of not having either colo- 
nies or a fleet in proportion to her continental greatness to-day — 
still America begins, as well as England, to expect it. As Holland 
once included Germany upon reasons of compactness, so Germany 
must now include Holland, her colonies and fleet. 



137 

It is the new doctrine of the concentration of nationalities practi- 
cally carried out by monarchs, in order to save to the people not 
merely the expense of so many hereditary superfluities, but to legiti- 
mately centralize their power to suit the times, which demand on the 
part of a people, the expansion of general progress in proper accord- 
ance with this age of fleetness, which intends to exhaust the wealth 
of the world ever since Steam has brought it within reach of all. 

If the Kings of Prussia, of Bavaria, of Saxony, of Hanover, of 
Wurtemberg and the remainder of German princes, can lay down 
their crowns upon the altar of the German fatherland, surely the 
King of Holland can, and Holland shall, like the Hanse-towns have 
already commenced to gain by the broadness of the impetus given to 
commercial progress, the full revival of its ancient renown and cos- 
mopolitan importance as explained already in previous j)ages. 

When, in the rotation of history, the Dutch yielded their supremacy 
of the commerce of the world to the British, the Americans, although 
indifferent to the power of the latter, nevertheless always considered 
the English, in case of aggression, a competent foe to compete with, 
but never did they estimate Germany or aify other nation as of any 
real consequence in the balance of power of the world. Even 
France never excelled much in their eyes beyond a continental Euro- 
pean power far less than any other power upon the continent of Eu- 
rope; and that little political^ respect which America had for France 
as a cosmopolitan power, during the reign of the first Napoleon, was 
fully obliterated by the fiasco the other Napoleon made in Mexico, 
doubting the Union of the United States of America. Too exalted 
to take any notice of his non-Monroeian intentions at the time, and 
too republican and noble to exult over the defeat of the French in 
this war with Germany, they were like the English, heartily relieved 
when French influence suddenly disappeared in a cloud. 

In Great Britain the change has been equally great. Justly vexed at 
the inconsistency of her own Government of having inveigled the nation 
into an alliance with France, at the time of the Crimean war, instead 
of having elevated, as was then feasible, tiny but vigorous Prussia, 
for the same purpose of counteracting the influence of Kussia in 
Turkey, etc., is explained from an over-estimation of French power 
and general importance ever since the reign of the first Napoleon, 
the world not having had an opportunity afforded of becoming dis- 
abused of it, England now embraces the opportunity of not only 
remembering the auld lang syne of Waterloo, and is naturally at all 
times sweetly reminded of the welfare of her own daughter, but com- 
prehends the harmony of race and religion. 

Vice versa the German politicians who are unfriendly to Great 
Britain, or worse, defend a monarchical against the American form 
16 



138 

of government, are always theorists who, in their younger days have 
not traveled outside of the small continent of Europe; they don't 
know anything of Great Britain and the United States of America 
either — as nations ; they cannot possibly get at any correct conception 
of what a cosmopolitan power really means, because they have not 
traveled in what is called " the world " nor even themselves been 
Hamburg or Bremen merchants, of a world-wide influence, to be 
able to judge correctly of the power of nations. A voyage to the 
United States of America, continued to China and India, would facil- 
itate their theoretical knoAvledge, to be condensed into practical views 
and enable them to more steadily progress. 









PART THE FOURTEENTH. 



THE COSMOPOLITAN POWER OF THE UNITED STATES OF 
AMERICA, GREAT BRITAIN, AND UNITED GERMANY. 



History, in vieAving- and recapitulating the social consequences of 
this war, at this high period of the world's civilization, above all notes 
the firm basis which education has so far built in Europe, and upon 
which liberalism securely rests. That basis is of a firmness which no 
anti-liberalism can distrust or assail. There is no falling back from 
the height of knowledge attained ; there is no labyrinthian darkness in 
the mind of man when the external sun of liberty, of humane tole- 
rance, of goodness, and of charitable plenty, pierces the openings in 
the walls of reason, but very dimly lit up at all times in any one 
by the artificial light of knowledge of any kind. That such is the case 
in Europe is now an incontrovertible fact, thanks to liberalism, thanks 
to its causes — education, thanks to America which influenced its appli- 
cation, thanks to steam and telegraph, by which geographical distances 
have been annihilated, so as to hourly and ceaselessly promote its 
spread, and thanks to the pioneers of liberalism and those of com- 
merce, a liberalism cosmopolitanly, materially, and practically aiding 
it. The anti-liberal constraint in religious, ijolitical, and social matters, 
is gladly found to abate rapidly. The concentration of crowns, espec- 
ially in Germany and Italy, asserts the truthful fact. 

The non-interference of Great Britain in this war, another import- 
ant proof of how liberalism is but synonymous of peace, humanity, 
tolerance, individual comfort and enlightenment, the fruits of educa- 
tion, gathered from the tree of life, which is ordained to be indepen- 
dent. Great Britain, a non-interferent in this war, while an ally of 
France, showed most undoubtedly that her people acquiesced in the 
doctrine of the continuancy for the present of monarchial power, for 
the same careful reasons which Germany and Italy advance. She 
could not have sided with France against those convictions, as that 
would have led to revolution all over Europe. Personal restraint, 
which is so chronic in Great Britain and Germany, it is to be feared 
if violently rented, would bring untold misery. The ripe fruit of 



140 

republicanism will fall off the tree of knowledge, witliont hindrfince, 
in due time, like any fully ripe garden fruit. 

The hatred of some of the French people against foreigners — a 
sickly glare from the smouldering embers of ambition on the part of 
their monarchial adherents — after France, to-day, is enjoying the prac- 
tical blessings of the republican foi'm of government, is another reason 
why the remainder of the people upon the continent of Europe can- 
not as yet be republican, nor even venture to disarm, especially con- 
sidered that the normal condition of society is but now enabled, to 
commence changing for the better. France thus herself in danger, 
cannot be said to enjoy peace. The humane institutions of the repub- 
lican form of government, as resting upon peace, are already assailed 
by those rotating dynastical interests of monarchial aspirants there. 

In order to henceforth shield Europe against the eventuality of 
dynastical wars. Great Britain, Germany, and Italy have to unite to 
guard the liberalism of Europe, synonymous of progress, as resting 
upon and developing itself in peace only, until that division of the 
globe shall be so universally intellectual and strong as to respect it 
law-abidingiy. 

America, so favorably isolated by the Atlantic, comprehends the stu- 
pendous efforts of enlightened Europe struggling to surely and continu- 
ally, but gradually, advance Freedom. Upon a piece of territory but as 
large as half the Occident, and crammed with five times the popula- 
tion of the whole of our division of the globe, it is no easy matter to 
accomplish. It is not only the desj)arity of population, but a feudal 
autocratic power now only waning within the latter half of this cen- 
tury, from which public, mature understanding is alone capable of 
I'escuing Liberty, and of comprehending the vastness of the strides 
which it costs to accomplish it legitimately. Time, the divine ameli- 
orator of Grief, shall soon roll over this war, and the bright encour- 
agement of Hope, diffusing life, enable nations to henceforth insure 
their happiness and progress peaceably. Then to disarm will be the 
order of the day. What happiness and wealth is sacrificed by such a 
state of suspense and dread of war ! "What misery entailed upon 
millions of people by the one word " hate " — war, rivalry in physical 
force, all of which gladiatorship is centered in the two words " un- 
educated and bad" — America only can as yet comprehend. 

Fed during two centuries as was the former monarchial power of 
France, by the permanent disunion of Germany and Italy, that nutri- 
ment is gone, Europe, the hunting ground for man, "fenced in !" 
" The watch of the Rhine ! a huntsman, a weather-beaten dead shot, 
on the look-out I" He shall not keep his eye off France as long as 
the River Rhine flows upon the earth, nor of Europe until it is repub- 
lican, and is fit to be so called. Until then it will be difficult for 



141 

Europe to disarm. That difficulty rests entirely with society, the 
normal state of which time only can ameliorate the conventional rigor 
of, and universal education radically change. 

That in consequence of the crammed nature of European popula- 
tion within the small periphery of the telTitorial size of Europe, and 
that in consideration of the many heterogeneous national elements 
adhering to legertds of the past, hatred of the present, and revenge 
for the future, " republicanism in its manhood" is yet far distant, is 
deplorably clear. 

The only hope which shall not stay the deliberate progress of Eu- 
rope, is that Germany, more intelligent than the rest, becomes doubly 
as numerically strong as France, instead of as to-day, merely equal 
to her in strength. She will then be able to relax from the rigor of 
discipline which alone secured to her her physical preponderance , and 
bestow her exclusive attention to a radical change in the normal rules 
of her society. From her compact strength she at present may guard 
peace, although she cannot initiate disarming; but the full develop- 
ment of her greatness depends upon the social elevation of the people 
at large, and the cosmopolitan extension of her commerce. 

The nations of United Europe have, therefore, for the present to 
continue to maintain the folly of former ignorance, and pay for it. 
That folly, that incubus, that terrible detriment, consisted on the 1st 
of September, 1871, in maintaining upon land and seas 5,164,300 
soldiers and 512,394 horses, and keep from rust 10,224 pieces of 
artillery, exclusive of about 800 mitrailleuses — of which ruinous in- 
vestment Germany alone maintains 18 army corps with 37 divisions of 
infantry and 10 divisions of cavalry, and 837 batteries, actually sup- 
porting 1,152,506 men, and caring for 239,314 horses, and keeping 
on a war footing 824,990 men, with 95,724 horses and 2,022 pieces of 
artillery. 

The consequences of this war recapitulate in this : Great Britain 
having allied herself in 1856 with France instead of Prussia, entitles 
the present Union of Germany, since the defeat of the French in this 
war, to the Netherlands, which viewed as the remnant of the former 
great Dutch empire, are as such, consistently and inevitably necessary 
to now contribute to the formation of an equally vast German empire. 

The consummation of this desideratum to be considered peremp- 
tory as demanded by duty towards the entire Germanic race, embrac- 
ing all who are at present alienated under foreign monarchical 
governments — to the detriment of the expansion of the Union in its 
great aim and strides of progress : the fitness for self-government and 
the possibility of contributing greatly towards the humanization of 
mankind at the present age. 



142 

Thus the present regeneration of the Netherlands, the Hanse-towns 
and Baltic ports to their former greatness centuries ago — the realiza- 
tion of the manifest destiny of the G-erman Union, shall induce 
Great Britain to morally ally herself with Germany, as strictly de- 
manded by Progress, is facilitated by race and religion, is augmented 
by similarity of character and strength, is made serviceable to mutual 
advantage because possible, and is incumbent as a duty which the 
two nations are destined to fulfill unitedly, peaceable and harmoni- 
ously, to the glory of civilization. 

As to the English language, it is evident it shall become the lan- 
guage of the civilized world, because the United States of America, 
absorbing the immigration from all parts of it, absorb likewise the 
various languages. 



THE END. 



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